MLG 711

Language, Society and Power

Assignment 3 : Research Proposal

Bias of Religious Cues in Social Media advertising on
Consumers’ Perception and Behaviour

Iman Aishah Binti Shahrul Nizam

2021900747
Bias of Religious Cues in Social Media Advertising on
Consumers’ Cognitive and Behaviour

Chapter 1: Introduction

Dyer (2008) says that advertising is a form of communication which is constantly

influencing consumers even though consumers themselves are most often unaware of it. The
subtle form of persuasion created by advertising changes consumers' perspective and to an
extent manipulates consumers' behaviour. The present research seeks to test the philosophy.

Background of Study

Marketing is a type of business practice that aims to meet customers’ needs through
identifying and predicting the demographic of the target market. Many companies seek out
effective marketing strategies that could aid their business in terms of prospecting, delivering
responsibilities and achieving goals. Effective marketing strategies are valuable to companies
because it could distinguish their business from competitors and maximize revenue. One of the
most common types of marketing strategies is through advertising.

Advertisements

Advertising is one of the key components in making a business sustain. In order for the
companies to outreach their clients, advertising is used to promote their products and services.
The types of advertising are diverse between display advertising, video advertising, mobile
advertising and native advertising. Companies have to choose how they want to portray their
business to the market through the usage of different mediums of advertising. Not only that, the
companies must also know what the market wants in order for them to attract their clients.

In the olden days, businesses would advertise their products and services through
newspapers, magazines, comics, commercials and billboards. Since the age of technology,
many of those aspects have been diverted from TVs, radios, printed media and cinema to the
internet. Many giant corporations like Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Apple have integrated their
marketing strategies to the online platform. Using entertainment websites, video-sharing
websites, blogs and forums as a space to put up their advertisements like pop up messages
and commercial banners. As technology continues to advance, comes the age of social media.

It could be said that social media is not a new platform as even the social media trends
have changed a couple of times during the past decades. First, there was Friendster, a social
website where friends can communicate with each other and post pictures with captions. After
that, came Myspace with additional features where the users could personalise their social
media page. Subsequently, Facebook became the most used social media.

Now, there are an abundance of social media sites that internet users can choose to
register in. Twitter, Instagram and ClubHouse, to name a few. A hypothesis to be made is that,
in this era of technology, the most used medium of communication is through online
communication, especially in terms of interactions using social media. In the year 2021, social
media statistics show that 3.78 billion people are social media users. When compared to the
world population, the number equates to 48 percent of the people, nearly half of the whole
populace (Statista, 2020). This number is also estimated to increase in the years to come as it
has increased up until now. It is evidence that more and more people are using social media.

Therefore, a lot of companies make use of this condition to put up their advertisements
online as a means of attracting a big demographic of clients. Not only is using online platforms
popular, it is also borderless, which means companies can reach both international and cross
country audiences easily. This aspect makes online advertisement more appealing for
companies. To justify, 92 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue was from mobile
advertising revenue. The company’s financial growth was recorded from 13 billion U.S Dollars in
2015 to 50.6 billion U.S Dollars in 2018. That being said, it shows that companies are
increasingly reaching out to online advertising as a way of marketing their businesses.

Social Media Advertising

Most social media users use social media as a tool for communication and source of
entertainment. Not only that, social media is highly personalised which means users must
actively choose to click on an advertisement or personally follow the companies’ online profile in
order for them to receive the company’s advertisements. Lin and Chang (2018), remarked that
social media users use the platforms to carry interactivities that themselves could determine as
well as control in the form and control of communication. (Lin & Chang, 2018) Not to mention
that all of it is being done in real time Thus, companies must find a strategic and effective way
for their products and services to be displayed and received by the social media users.

Prior to this, commercials on TVs were a lucrative asset to media companies. Strategic
placements of commercials were based on the demographic target market of the shows being
shown. However, this strategy is no longer usable given the aspect of social media being highly
personalised and it is up to users when they want to use it.

Companies have found some relief when Facebook and Google introduced the analytics
system based on information retrieved from users themselves (Cutroni, 2010). With this
advantage, companies have a more focused target market. However, the social media
companies have to also keep in mind that if the users are bombarded by too many
advertisements, they would also lose their users. Thus, the social media company must then
also strategies effective ways for them to display the advertisements but still be user-friendly.

This creates a conflict between the two companies, as the companies must choose an
option that benefits their interest. Firstly, companies would want their advertisements to stand
out for consumers to recognize their brand and support their business. Secondly, social media
companies must abide by users' perception and interest of their websites. In this case, social
media companies would have the upper-hand as their platform is the intermediary between the
companies and the consumers. According to Youtube’s policy (2018), the strategy used by the
company is that users have the option to skip advertisements whereas unskippable
advertisements would only be in the period of 6 seconds. Company’s have no other option but
to advertise in obedience to social media companies’ terms and conditions. This aspect limits
the company’s time to capture consumer’s attention which could lead to ineffective advertising.

Native Advertising

According to Campbell & Marks (2015), native advertising is an important form of

advertising used by companies, especially online, in order for the companies to gain significant
attention from consumers. This is because native advertising helps reduce ad fatigue among
consumers and could help increase consumers’ interest in the products or services. This aspect
of native advertising makes it easy to be adapted to social media advertising. Examples of
native advertising are when a company sponsors an event or when a company commissioned
articles in magazines or newspapers. Native advertising is when the companies adjust their
commercials as according to the media and platform the ads are sponsored and endorsed in.

An illustration of how a native advertising works is by seeing how designer brands are
being portrayed on red carpet events. Fashion designers would often sponsor outfits to
celebrities during these events which is ultimately a way for them to gain and attract clients.
When looking at it from the perspective of social media, the same strategy can be seen used by
social media influencers. Some companies use social media influencers to advertise their
brands such as through paid reviews, sponsorships and endorsement deals with the company.

As stated by Lim et al (2017), the usage of social media influencers is an effective

strategy in online advertising. This is because there is an effect in source attractiveness, product
match-up and meaning transfer between the social media influencers and consumers. This
gives way for companies to use native advertising through social media influencers. Just as
similar to how fashion designers use celebrities to represent their brands, companies can also
utilize the aspect of social media influencers’ online followings as the demographic of their
target market. In a way, social media influencers are replacing celebrities in terms of influence.

Not only that, Lim et al also mentions that there is a shift in trust of the consumers,
between celebrity endorsements and social media influencer endorsements. This is because
social media influencers are seen as more credible, trustworthy and knowledgeable than
celebrities since most social media influencers gain rapport through being spontaneous as well
as the different nature of the platform used in gaining that rapport. To further explain, consumers
are attracted to social media influencers more than they do celebrities because most social
media influencers use personal and direct approach when interacting with their followers
whereas celebrities are known through film productions, musical debuts and tv shows.

There is also the difference of frequency between the two. Since social media
influencers are interactive with their followers on a day to day basis. While on the contrary, films
and music need time to be produced which lessen the frequency of screen time for celebrities.
Magno & Cassia (2018) echoes the findings as their findings showed preliminary evidence on
how social media influencers could impact their social media followers intentions. This is in the
aspect of social media influencers who portray traveling as their niche and the impact of it on
tourism. There was an effect between the advertised place by the social media influencers and
their internet followings’ determination of tourism destinations. This shows that social media
influencers have some control over the buying power of consumers in the tourism sector.

Operational Definition of Terms

Social Media Advertising

Social network advertising, also social media targeting, is a group of terms that are used
to describe forms of online advertising that focus on social networking services.

Native Advertising

Native advertising is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the
platform upon which it appears. In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as
a video, article or editorial. Some examples would be sponsored contents or endorsements.

Cues

Consumer cues, sometimes referred to as brand cues, include a variety of visual, written
and spoken messages that affect consumer buying behavior.

Limitation of Study

The limitation of the study is that there is limited literature on the issue in the Malaysian
context. However, given that the issue is happening globally, there could be a shift of focus from
Malaysian only context to taking samples from other countries but getting responses from
Malaysian viewers. Otherwise, there is also a limitation of time in order to do a more
comprehensive investigation on how religious cues impact consumer cognitive and behaviour.
Problem Statement

Given the findings of Li et al and Johnson and Hong, that is the influence of bandwagon
cue and heuristic cue on the effectiveness of social media advertising, a question of whether
other types of cue could lead to the same positive outcomes of these cues. In general
advertisements, there is a relationship between religious cues such as symbolisms and speech
acts that are commonly used in native advertising as an effective strategy.

Henley, Philhours, Ranganathan and Bush (2009), notes that there is an interplay
between religion and advertising. To justify, they mentioned that two-thirds of earth 's population
possesses various types of religious affiliations and this is usually proposed as a credible
rationale. While admittedly religion is a controversial and complex issue yet advertisers and
advertising researchers could not ignore it as it is a substantial part of society and individuals.

Religious Cues in Advertising

Minton (2015), found out that religious factors in advertising do lead to an increase of
trust between the consumers and the businesses' company and brand, thereby supporting that
there is a positive connection between using religion elements as an advertising strategy.
Consumers who are more religious have more broad marketplace trust which then leads to
more specific relational trust, thereby producing more positive product evaluations. Interestingly,
only affective and cognitive religiosity directly influence marketplace trust and indirectly influence
product evaluations, thereby supporting the theory of the connection between religion,
advertising and how it leads to an effective advertising strategy by the companies.

Bakar, A., Lee, R., & Rungie, C. (2013) supports this as their study shows that religious
symbols on product packaging positively influences consumers’ purchase intentions. However,
this is only for low symbolic value products. Another key contribution of their study is in affirming
that a religious symbol’s influence could extend beyond advertising to packaging. This is since
that consumers’ notice product packaging which most likely would occur at the point of sales
which is usually in retail stores. This means that visual cues that contain religious elements on
packaging play an important role in attracting consumers’ attention, who are often under time
pressure and given limited attention when choosing among competing brands.
Research Questions:

- What are the Religious Cues in native advertising of social media advertisements?
- How are religious cues impacting consumers' cognitive and perception in native
advertising of Social Media Advertisements?
- What effects do Religious Cues have on consumers' attitude and behaviour in native
advertising of Social Media Advertisements?
- How is bias involved in effective native advertising of Social Media Advertising when
Religious Cues are present as a strategy to effective marketing?

Research Objectives:

- Analyse usage of Religious Cues in native advertising of Social Media Advertisements

- To investigate the impacts of Religious Cues in native advertising of Social Media
Advertisements on consumer’s cognitive and perception of brand and company.
- To discover effects of Religious Cues in native advertising on consumer’s attitude and
behaviour towards brand and company in relation to Social Media Advertisements.
- To seek the relationship of bias and Religious Cues in native advertising of Social Media
Advertisements in effective marketing strategy

Scope of Study

Effects of Social Media on Consumer’s Cognitive and Behaviour

Using social media influencers as a partner in social media marketing of companies, the
personal opinions of the social media influencer would also be associated with the companies’
brand and consequently be a factor in determining the success rate of social media marketing
and brand recognition among consumers as well. Of course, it would also rely on the
companies’ own stand on their marketing strategy as such if they are in the firms of defenders
or explorers otherwise if their companies’ point of view is of conservatism or modernism.

Jamison et al (2019) discusses the issue of vaccine-related advertising in Facebook and

how false news of vaccines affects consumers in a way of being pro-vaccine or anti-vaccine. In
their investigation, they found out that a portion of anti-vaccine advertisements leveraged on
Facebook advertisements as a means to reach a targeted audience. This is alarming since
there is a direct effect between the advertisement and the people’s opinion about vaccines.
Vaccines are supposed to be a health concern that is accessible to everyone. Yet, with the
emergence of false reports about vaccines, it managed to steer people’s stand on vaccines.

This means that, there is a correlation between the content of social media advertising
and consumer’s cognitive and behaviour. The large gap between the contents for national
importance related issues (vaccines) and contents of companies’ advertisements is recognised
yet the potential impact of the matter on consumers should not be discounted as well. By
sharing information online, companies or individuals are able to create arguments or even
persuasion towards the consumers. Especially when there are no specific guidelines on what is
being shared is credible or not. Even though companies like Facebook and Google are working
towards the integration of fact checkers and post filterings yet until then this remains an issue.

Social Media Advertisements on Consumers Cognitive

To throw light into the matter of how social media advertisements affect consumer
perception, the study of Paul, Strong and Pius (2020) is seen as illuminating as they mentioned
that there is an extensive effort from marketers in social media advertising since social media
plays a dominant role in the life of consumers. It was also found out that high interactivity in
terms of message and ad vividness between the company and the consumers has an effect as
well as an adverse effect on ad attention and memory of consumers who are involved.

The causal effects of social media interactivity includes message vividness in social
media advertising and the aspects of including anthropomorphism in order to make a more vivid
message for the consumers are effective strategies of social media advertising. To conclude, the
effects of social media advertising on consumers are the effects on ad attention and memory of
consumers towards the brand name and the message that the brand gives through the ads. For
example, studies propose that web interactivity directs the consumers to process information
more thoroughly, and enhances the message recall (Gao, 2011; Sicilia et al., 2005).

Otherwise, Dolan, Conduit, Frethey-Bentham, Fahy, and Goodman (2019) also notifies
that there is a distinct impact on the rational and emotional appeals of the consumers on the
social media engagement behaviour of the companies. To put into perspective, it means that
consumers do respond to companies’ social media advertising strategies, especially in terms of
the consumers’ rationality of buying the company’s products and services. Not to mention the
emotional element that could lead to brand-loyalty and consumer’s continuous support. Other
than that, the study also noted that the rational appeals in social media advertising have a
superior effect in terms of enabling both active and passive engagement among consumers with
the companies or representatives of the companies. Whereas, when it comes to emotional
appeals, it aids in facilitating passive rather than active engagement behaviour. This is in spite
of the interactive and social nature of the social media landscape. Given that, this further the
claim that social advertisements do affect consumers’ perception. Here being towards the
rational and emotional attachment of the consumers’ toward the company’s brand and identity.

Having said that, there is a relationship between advertisements and the perception of
consumers’ towards the brand. It could also adversely affect consumer cognition (Ashley &
Tuten, 2015; Liu & Shrum, 2002; Sundar, 2004). This further justifies that the type of social
media advertising and the content of the social media advertising impacts consumers’
recognition of the brand, the effectiveness of the advertisement and ultimately, for companies to
attract their potential customers as well as reach their goals in the marketing and advertising of
their businesses, products and services. On the other hand, in general advertisement context,
there is an adverse effect on the influence of interactivity on the behaviour and attitude of
consumers. In addition, it was noted that social advertising does not only impact consumers’
cognition but also their behaviour and attitude towards the company and the brand it carries.

Social Media Advertisements on Consumers Behaviour

There are differences in the way various types of social media users behave on social
media, this would also include how they respond to social media advertisements. (Vinerean,
Cetina, Dumitrescu and Tichindelean, 2013) The three groups of social media users stated are
spectators who are not interactive in social media activities, the second group of social media
user is expressers or informers; this group of users is open to engage in their social media
platforms in which they share information to their online followings. The last group of social
media users are engagers, networkers, watchers and listeners. This group of social media users
is similar to the first and second one but they spend more time on the social media platforms.
 The different types of social media groups correlate with how the social media users
react and respond to social media advertising. Some of the behaviours that are impacted on the
consumers because of social media advertising are the likeability to click on an online
advertisement, intention of buying when clicking after seeing online advertisements, the
probability of sharing the advertisement to other social media users, interactions with companies
of social media advertisements and updating about purchases on own social media.

The issue is also consolidated by Stephen (2016), in his study, it was discovered that
there are two levels of how social advertising impacts consumer behaviour. The first level is as
environment-integral which means that the social media advertisements influence behaviour in
the social media environment. The second level of impact is on environmental-incidental, that is
when the social media advertisement influences the consumers behaviour outside of the social
media environment. The factor in which the impact could happen is through the sharing of other
social media users’ opinions and choices. This could then lead to a second level of impact and
consequently affecting other subsequent behaviour changes. To simplify, social media users
behaviour could also change through observation of other social media users. This means that
social media advertising leaves other impacts even outside of the social media advertising
content and context in itself. The consumers’ behaviour as customers to the company will also
be the domino effect of an effective social media advertising strategy done by the companies.

Native Advertising on Social Media on Consumer’s Cognitive and Behaviour

Li, Vafeiadis, Xiao and Yang (2020) found out that there is a link between corporate
credibility and bandwagon ques of social media advertising which can influence social media
advertising strategy effectiveness. The main focus of the study was on using bandwagon cues
in social media postings as a way to promote the business as well as promoting the social
media postings being sponsored by the company. Sponsorship deals by companies fall under
native advertising methods and in this case the sponsored deals are the base of the companies’
social media advertising strategy. In their study, it was found that when sponsored content is
made and posted by high-credibility companies, it can evoke favourable attitudes and
behavioural intentions of the consumers. This is because consumers perceive social
advertisements as less intrusive. Not only that, it elicits less anger from the consumers when
compared to social media advertisements created and posted by low credibility companies.
 For high credibility companies, the strategy of using bandwagon cues in their sponsored
social media advertising strategy prove to be an effective strategy in improving ad persuasion
towards the consumers. This is due to the companies’ own way of handling the situation when
they mitigate consumers’ anger towards other sponsored ads that are intrusive. In contrast,
low-credibility companies with high bandwagon cues in their sponsored social media advertising
strategy develop an enhanced ad persuasiveness among the consumers. This eventually
triggers positive attitudes of consumers towards the business and the brand of the company.

Johnson and Hong (2020), supports this finding as they mentioned that sponsored social
media advertisements that include heuristic cues in Instagram postings affect the
multidimensional perception in the mind of the consumers. In this regard, their results provide
empirical proof that social presence is positively related to social media engagement among the
consumers. This is in line with previous literature showing that social presence, or the
sensation of “being there” in mediated communication (Short et al., 1976), leads to engagement
with content with high social presence (T. Kim & Biocca, 1997; Richardson & Swan, 2003). For
example, a higher sense of presence in a virtual store can lead to audiences being more
confident in regard to their attitudes toward the product or brand (T. Kim & Biocca, 1997). In
other terms, the heuristic cues of sponsored social media advertisements creates a better
impression and perception of the consumers towards the company’s business and brand.

In conclusion, the findings of Li et al and Johnson and Hong on heuristic cues and
bandwagon cues can influence social media ad effectiveness. Which means that both these
factors in social media advertisements done by companies have an underlying impact on
consumers’ cognitive and behaviour. Heuristic cues are when the social advertisements contain
the ‘rule of thumb’ strategy in order to create an effective social media advertisement strategy.
Whereas, bandwagon cues are when the companies rely on consumers’ own intent and
preferences as a way to create content and context of their social media advertising strategy.

Significance of Study

Elements of Social Media Advertising

Given that there are many companies that are using social media influencers as an
advertising strategy, the dynamic of the two parties should be concluded. This is because, given
that using social media influencers as a social media advertising strategy relies on the
workmanship between the companies and the social media influencer, thus it is presumed that
there are similarities of the identity of the company and the identity of the social media
influencer in order for the collaboration to be successful. In easier terms, logically, makeup
companies would endorse or collaborate with social media influencers that are related to make
up such as YouTubers who are recognised for their make up skills. This is in order for them to
reach their target market and as a strategy for consumers to recognize their brand and identity.

As a way to understand the concept of social media advertising and what makes a social
media advertising strategy effective, the elements involved in social media advertising should be
known so that a conclusive determining factor could be reached. The elements of social media
advertising should cover the aspects of the background of the social media environment, the
structure of the social media advertising and the dynamic of the social media demography. It
should also include the stand and perspective of the companies in their company’s social media
advertising strategy and how they are portraying their businesses to the general public.

Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch (2017), notes that there are four elements of strategic
social media advertising. The elements are social media marketing scope, social media
marketing culture, social media marketing structure and social media marketing governance. In
their research they proposed a model of strategic social media advertising through the
investigation of firms that are the opposite sides of the spectrum in their ways of conducting
their businesses online. These elements are crucial in determining the types of strategies and
approaches used by the multiple companies in social media advertising of their businesses.

Summary

To summarise, this chapter focuses on the background of the issue as well as the
problem statement that is a causal effect from the issue. Not only that, this chapter also focuses
on describing the scope as well as the significance of the study. The focus of this chapter is in
understanding the research question and the research objectives of the upcoming investigation.
Chapter 2 : Literature Review

Review of Past Studies

Social Media Advertising

Customers are accordingly more behaviourally and perceptually engaged with the major
social media platforms such as Facebook, Google+, Snapchat, YouTube, and Twitter (Alalwan,
Rana, Dwivedi, & Algharabat, 2017; Kapoor et al., 2017; Kim and Kim, 2018; Shareef, Mukerji,
Dwivedi, Rana, & Islam, 2017). Consequently, organizations worldwide have started thinking
about how using these platforms could help in attracting customers and building a profitable
marketing relationship with those customers (Alalwan, Rana, Algharabat, & Tarhini, 2016;
Braojos-Gomez, Benitez-Amado, & Llorens-Montes, 2015; Kamboj, Sarmah, Gupta, & Dwivedi,
2018; Lin and Kim, 2016; Oh, Bellur, & Sundar, 2015). Such interest is also demonstrated by
the large amount of money spent by organizations on advertising campaigns. For instance, in
2016 about 524.58 billion USD was invested for this purpose as reported by Statista (2017).

Due to the nature of interactive and modern technology, social media ads represent
customer communication (Logan, Bright, & Gangadharbatla, 2012). In comparison with
traditional mass media advertising or online ads (that are used for Web 1.0 applications), firms
are able to have more informative and interactive communication with their customers (Barreda,
Bilgihan, Nusair, & Okumus, 2016; Lee and Hong, 2016; Mangold and Faulds, 2009; Palla,
Tsiotsou, & Zotos, 2013; Swani, Milne, Brown, Assaf, & Donthu, 2017). Hence, social media ads
could help firms to accomplish many marketing aims, such as creating customers’ awareness,
building customers’ perception, and motivating customers to purchase products.

Native Advertising

Since the term, native advertising, was conceptualized in 2011, the advertising and
marketing industry has paid much attention to this advertising. The growth of native advertising
reached $1.3 billion in 2013 (eMarketer, 2014). Despite the increasing popularity of native
advertising on social media (Dix & Phau, 2009), evidence suggests that native advertising could
be a double-edged sword (eMarketer, 2013; Kim, 2015; Truong, McColl, & Kitchen, 2010; van
Reijmersdal, Neijens, & Smit, 2005). Consumers tend to be positive toward native advertising
due to its less interruptive nature (Kim, 2015; Tutaj & van Reijmersdal, 2012) However, they
could negatively react to it when they perceive its covert format as manipulative (eMarketer,
2013). Although both reactions to native advertising can be found among consumers, little is
known regarding which response is more common, especially on social media. Some studies
have examined both positive and negative effects of native advertising (van Reijmersdal et al.,
2005), banner ads (Tutaj & van Reijmersdal, 2012), and online video ads (Kim, 2015).

Cues in Advertising

Attentional bias theory suggests that when people have an increased motivation to
receive or avoid a rewarding substance, like palatable food, they show increased attention
towards cues that are related to that substance (Field & Cox, 2008; Werthmann et al., 2011).
Furthermore, attention biases and craving for the rewarding substance are assumed to be
reciprocally related. Motivational stimuli, like food advertisements, capture attention and trigger
neurological reward systems, promoting craving and motivating behaviour toward the foods
(Castellanos et al., 2009). Multiple studies have examined the effects of food marketing on
eating behaviour of children and found that food advertising techniques are effective (Boyland et
al., 2016; Folkvord, Anschütz, Boyland, Kelly, & Buijzen, 2016, Folkvord & van‘t Riet, 2018).

Theoretical Framework

Elaboration Likelihood Model

Cacioppo and Petty (1984) elaboration likelihood is a model of persuasion that has long
been used to investigate the relationship of how messages are elaborated by persuaders and
acceptance in the cognition process of the retrievers. The theory has also been used by many
researchers in exploring the use of persuasion skills in advertising (Karson and Korgaonkar,
2001; Kerr, Schultz, Kitchen, Mulhern and Beede, 2015; Oh and Jasper, 2006).

Elaboration Likelihood Model is a persuasion model in which there is a dual process

theory involved. This is in describing the change of attitudes of a person when persuasion is
related. The purpose of the model is to describe different ways stimuli are processed cognitively
and reasons to why the stimuli are used to which is related to attitude change. In the model,
there are two major routes to persuasion which are the central route and the peripheral route.
 When a person is careful and takes thoughtful consideration during persuasion
interaction, it falls under the central route process. This is because there is a high level of
message elaboration necessary which requires a great amount of cognition process about the
arguments by individuals who are listening to the message. Not only that, the listeners would
also find merits of the truthfulness of the messages in order for a successful persuasion.

Conversely, it is the opposite for the peripheral route, there is little cognition process
involved in the acceptance of persuasion. Through the peripheral route, successful persuasion
is a result from positive or negative cues in the stimulus. Generally, in the peripheral route, a
successful persuasion does not include the logical quality of the stimuli. Usually, the cues
involved would be the factors of credibility or attractiveness of the messages. Sometimes, even
to the extent of the production or quality of the message. The elaboration likelihood model is
established through individuals’ motivations and ability to assess arguments of persuasion.

Conceptual Framework

In Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch (2017) model, the views and approaches of
companies are compartmentalise to conservatism and modernism which is based on social
media marketing culture element, defender and explorer which is under social media marketing
scope element, hierarchies and networks which are in the social media marketing structure
element as well as autocracy and anarchy which falls under the element of social media
marketing governance. These elements are crucial in finding out the company’s identity which
could then result in the difference of content and form of the advertisements on social media.

Social Media Marketing Scope

Social media marketing scope is an element where it begs the question of whether
companies use social media marketing as a medium of communication with consumers and
partners or social media marketing as a genuine tool for collaborations and endorsements.

In their research, it was found out that there is a different approach between how
defenders and explorers use social media advertising. Primarily, defenders would use social
media as a one-way communication method in order to entertain consumers or to notify
partners. On the other hand, explorers are more interested in authentic social media advertising
collaborations and endorsements. This is because their advertising strategy is more towards
receiving reciprocal interactions by the consumers and partners as opposed to only for display.
Explorers rely on interactivity between the company and the consumers. Not only that, these
types of companies rely on consumers’ response as their social media advertising strategy.

Social Media Marketing Culture

As for social media marketing culture, there was a different view in comparing
conservatism and modernism. The distinguishing difference is that conservatism represents
their companies through traditional and mass advertising approaches. Whereas modernism is
characterized by being more open and flexible in the social media marketing culture. The two
firms are directly opposite of each other in which conservatism uses a more traditional method
in advertising, like sharing posters or brochures but upgrading them into e-materials. This
creates a more mass advertising approach. On the other side of that, modernisms’ approach
are according to real time trends and current demands. Modernisms keep up with the time.

The two different views would then form two different ways of advertising. It is up to the
companies themselves in choosing the type of advertising approach that they would use for
social media advertising. Likewise, the approaches would then be divided to the type of target
market they are reaching out to and also considering the products or services that the
companies provide. The approaches are also actually based on the companies’ structure.

Social Media Marketing Structure

In the element of social media marketing structure, the two parties involved are firms that
are based on hierarchies and firms that are based on networks. Social media marketing
structure refers to how companies organise their social media advertising assignments in the
firm. In the context of hierarchies, it stands for centralised approach in which the company has a
clearly defined social media assignee. Oppositely, companies that use networks as their modus
operandi have an organisational structure whereby all employees have the responsibility to
participate in social media advertising which then eliminates the role of social media marketing
director. There are distinct differences that can be seen from the outlook of both parties.
It could be said that this aspect of the element is more internal than external as the structure of
the company focuses on the roles of the employees and whether they have a destined role or
the employees must follow general rule for all staff members for the responsibility of social
media advertising for the company. Externally, it would reflect on the type, form or content of the
social media advertising which are how the consumers see the social media advertisements.

Social Media Marketing Governance

Last but not least is the element of social media marketing governance. This element
refers to how companies establish the rules and guidelines within the companies’ policy,
internally and externally. Not only that, it also involves the responsibilities in terms of
maintenance and regulation of their companies’ social media advertising. As well as how the
company chooses to conduct their business and the way the employees are regulated.
Furthermore, it also entails internal and external policies that are to be used for any parties that
are associated with the company. This also includes their terms and conditions in the hiring of
employees, the role of employees, endorsement or sponsorship deals and b2b companies.

On the side of the autocracy, their point of view is that there is a strict condition on who is
allowed to deliver and interact in their social media advertising. Conversely, anarchies is the
opposite of that in which there are no rules or guidelines on who is responsible for doing social
media advertising. This is more so on how the company approaches in following terms,
conditions, rules and guidelines as well as in creating their own internal policies with employees.

Summary

This chapter focuses on the past researchers that have been done underlying the issue
of cues and its impact on consumers’ cognitive and behaviour. Other than that, this chapter also
explored the theoretical framework and conceptual framework that would be done in order to
answer the research questions and to achieve the research objectives of this paper.
Chapter 3: Methodology

In order to retrieve answers for the research objectives, a theoretical framework is

needed. This is as well as the tools, structure and planning of the investigation that should be
identified. Given that advertising is a persuasion tactic used by companies to gain clients,
persuasion theories should be looked into as effective advertising means that the advertisement
successfully persuades consumers to purchase a company’s products or acquire their services.

Research Design

In relation to the research questions and objectives, the model will be useful in
determining the cognitive process of consumers’ in effective social media advertising, just the
same as how messages are elaborated and retrieved in the elaboration likelihood model. The
element of motivation could also be a base in identifying the bias effect of religious que in native
advertising of social media advertising. This is in whether there is a direct correlation between
the consumers’ identity and the effectiveness of the social media advertising strategy. Not only
that, the analysis of attitude change of the consumers’ could also justify how social media
advertisements are impacting the consumer’s behaviour.

Figure : Elaboration Likelihood Model

 Content Analysis

Four materials of social media advertisements are to be analysed as a means of seeing

the elements of religious cues that are used in social media advertisements. Not only that, the
social media advertisements should be of native advertising strategy, such as sponsorship,
endorsements or social advertising. The analysed materials will then be categorised and
described using the elaboration likelihood model in which how the message is elaborated in the
social media advertisements. After that, the materials will be shown to participants in order to
get their response to the social media advertising strategy. Other than that, it could also be
found out whether consumers use central route or peripheral route in processing the social
advertisements. Finally, a comparison of the motivations of effective social media advertising
and using religious cue as a strategy in native advertising is investigated to see if there is bias.

Survey

A survey will be done to collect consumers’ relative position and opinions regarding the
usage of religious cues in native advertising of social media advertisements. Given the
intricacies of the issue, an estimated 100 participants are needed to give a more substantial and
concrete finding. The high number of participants is crucial in reducing bias and human errors.

Research Sample

The samples would be distributed to Malaysians who are more than 18 years old and are
users of social media. The participants would also be selected at random in order to get a wide
understanding on how religious cues could impact the consumers’ cognitive and behaviour as
well as to investigate if there is bias involved in consumers’ response from the advertisements.
The advertisements would be chosen following the guide of the conceptual framework.
Otherwise, the survey would be distributed using social networking sites.
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