THE IMPACT OF HUMOROUS ADVERTISEMENT ON CONSUMER PURCHASE

INTENTION

Academic Business Research Project Report

Submitted to

Kathmandu University School of Management

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA Honors)

By

Sujana Manandhar

KU Registration Number: 016945-14

Under the supervision of

Roshee Lamichhane Bhusal,

Lecturer-Business Management & OB

In charge- Placement Cell

August 7, 2018
 i

© Copyright (Sujana Manandhar) (2018)

 ii

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this thesis entitled “The impact of humorous advertisement on
consumer purchase intention” embodies the result of an original research work I carried
out in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelors in Business
Administration (Honors) in Management of the Kathmandu University and that this
thesis has not been submitted for candidature for any other degree.

________________________ _______________

(Sujana Manandhar) (Date)

 iii

RECOMMENDATION

This is to certify that Ms. Sujana Manandhar has completed her research work on “The
impact of humorous advertisement on consumer purchase intention” under our
supervision and that her thesis embodies the result of her investigation conducted during
the period she worked as an BBA (Honors) students of the School of Management. The
thesis is of the standard expected of a candidate for the degree of BBA (Honors) and has
been prepared in the prescribed format of the School of Management. The thesis is
forwarded for evaluation.

Thesis Advisory Committee

1. Dean Dr. Bijay K.C (Signature) ____________________

2. Supervisor Ms. Roshee Lamichhane Bhusal (Signature) ___________________

3. Research Project Guidance In-charge Nisha Adhikari (Signature) _________________

7th August, 2018

 iv

Acknowledgement

This research project has been a complete package of learning. Even though I
have had experience of research on other subjects other than research methodology itself
in previous semesters itself, doing a complete research all by oneself has been a
challenging yet memorable experience.

I feel very lucky and would like to give my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Ms.
Roshee Lamichhane Bhusal, who was always available, either on campus or virtually to help me
in every way possible. She made the entire period of work easier with her guidance. That not only
showed me the way to go further but improve my work in the visible manner.

In addition, every person who directly or indirectly helped me to complete this research
either in the form of my survey respondents, my teachers, my family and my friends, I would like
to thank them too, because this research was not possible all alone.
 v

Abstract

The effectiveness of humorous advertisement has mixed findings on different

dimensions of humor and regarded controversial on few aspects. As the results entirely
depends on how potential consumers perceive the humor presented, this research is
conducted among the Nepali respondents and has focused on the findings related as to
their attitude towards humor in an advertisement as an effect on purchase decision.

In addition to that, this research gives clear idea of preference of Nepalese

viewers and their interest on the type of humor as well. Furthermore, this research has
studied four independent variables; attention, comprehension, entertainment and
persuasion in relation to dependent variable purchase intention. The results are derived
from the responses drawn; hence, the entire results are based on the perception of
potential consumers.

The major finding that makes this research significant is because of the new and
contradicting findings related to attention and persuasion as persuasion’s impact on
consumer purchase intention is surprisingly higher than that of attention. Previously, the
practitioners’ views and consumers’ views were collided as the persuasion factor was not
found to be impactful but from the results drawn in this research, persuasion has the
highest of impact on purchase intention. Also, attention was earlier found to be highest
impactful variable in humorous advertisements from both practitioners’ and consumers’
perspective. But in this research, both of the correlation and regression scores of
persuasion is highest among all variable making the attention second most impactful in
regard of Nepalese consumers.
 vi

Contentss
© Copyright (Sujana Manandhar) (2018)........................................................................................i
DECLARATION............................................................................................................................ii
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................iii
Acknowledgement.........................................................................................................................iv
Abstract...........................................................................................................................................v
1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................1
1.1 Background...........................................................................................................................1
1.2 Significance of Study............................................................................................................2
1.3 Objectives of the Study.........................................................................................................2
1.4 Problem definition................................................................................................................2
1.5 Problem statement:...............................................................................................................2
1.5.1 Research question..........................................................................................................4
1.5.2 Sub questions:................................................................................................................4
1.6 Rationale of the Research Project.........................................................................................5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................................6
2.1 Theoretical Framework.......................................................................................................11
2.2 Hypothesis Development....................................................................................................12
3. METHODOLOGY...............................................................................................................12
3.1 Research Design.................................................................................................................13
3.2 Sample and Sampling Procedures.......................................................................................13
3.3 Instrument...........................................................................................................................14
3.4 Data Analysis......................................................................................................................14
4. RESULTS.............................................................................................................................15
4.1 Descriptive analysis............................................................................................................15
4.2 Reliability Analysis............................................................................................................19
4.3 Descriptive Statistics...........................................................................................................20
4.4 Correlation analysis............................................................................................................23
4.5 Regression analysis.............................................................................................................24
4.6 ANOVA..............................................................................................................................26
 vii

4.7 Hypotheses Testing.............................................................................................................28

5. DISCUSSION.......................................................................................................................28
5.1 Summary, discussion and implication.................................................................................28
5.2 Major findings....................................................................................................................29
5.3 Discussion...........................................................................................................................31
5.4 Implication..........................................................................................................................34
5.4.1 Practical implication....................................................................................................34
5.4.2 Implications for future research...................................................................................36
5.5 Critique of the study...........................................................................................................36
Appendices...................................................................................................................................38
I. Questionnaire........................................................................................................................38
II. Participation Information sheet............................................................................................40
III. Consent form......................................................................................................................41
Bibliography.................................................................................................................................43
 viii

List of tables

Table heading Page no.

Table 1: Preference on advertisement type 27
Table 2: Preference on type of humor 27
Table 3: Cronbach’s alpha 29
Table 4: Mean score of statements regarding study variables 30
Table 5: Mean score of study variables 31
Table 6: Correlation analysis among study variables 32
Table 7: Regression analysis of study variables 34
Table 8: Multiple regression analysis of the model 35
Table 9: ANOVA Table 35
Table 10: Coefficients’ table 36
Table 11: Hypotheses testing 37

List of figures

Figure heading Page no.

Figure 1: Global use of humor in advertisements 15
Figure 2: Theoretical framework 20
Figure 3:Respondents’ gender 24
Figure 4: Respondents’ age 25
Figure 5: Respondents’ education 25
Figure 6: Respondents’ profession 26
Figure 7: income per month 26
 1

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
Millions of dollars are spent on humor in advertising sector annually (Alden & Hoyer,
1993). It is found by scholars that around one to three tenth of ads contain some form of
humor (Wang et al., 2014; Beard, 2008; Catanescu & Tom, 2001; Weinberger et al.,
1995). Humor is considered as an important factor from the perspective of having a social
and cultural life globally (Ritchie 2009). About 70% of advertisements contained some
form of humor in the advertisements mega event – Superbowl (Wang et al., 2014; Gulas,
McKeage, & Weinberger, 2010). The special effect by humor is the emotion created by
humor which converts resistance to persuasion regarding to buy the product/service
advertised (Craig & Sternthal, 1973). Humor is the peripheral cue to the advertisements
for selecting product or service in competitive world (Harlan, Marc, Parsons, Spotts, &
Weinberger, 1997).

Humor is presented to audience in forms like visual, sound, slapstick, comedic

situation and many more (Bolzmann, Chakraborty, & Mowen, 2000). The mediums by
which humor is conveyed to audience is through different ways as advertisements, puns,
jokes, short stories, etc. (Ritchie, 2009). Humor contains major role in producing positive
effectiveness in advertising as advertisement message influences in product memory,
affective, attitude, cognitive and behavioral aspects. Which is majorly reflects consumer
buying behaviour in market place (Fugate, 1998). Generally, the pleasure and comfort of
entertainment factor draws attention from viewers for the advertisement (Fugate, 1998).
The repetition of ads is rather enjoyed than mainstream ads that lead to brand recall and it
reflects on sales. (Eisend & Martin, 2010).
 1

1.2 Significance of Study

The fundamental motto of any commercial business or company is to increase

their revenues. Brands want to increase their sales, for increasing sales they use different
tools like sales promotions or advertising in marketing. Advertising plays a vital role in
any company’s sales and brand success. Marketers use different advertising techniques in
search of getting consumer attention in an advertising (Suttle, 2018). The usage of humor
in advertisement is in one fifth of total television ads whereas regarding attention of
customers, advertisers believe that humorous advertisements get more of it than non-
humor ads by enhancing positive feelings (Ritchie, 2009). Humorous advertisements also
create positive results such as to help build up brand image and customer loyalty
(Venkatesh & Senthilkumar, 2015).

1.3 Objectives of the Study

 To find out the impact of humorous advertisement on consumer purchase intention.

1.4 Problem definition

The fact is that humor is a complex topic that has been experimentally studied by
advertisers in several dozen studies over the past fifty years. Humor is a multifarious
concept that is affected by a wide variety of factors.

1.5 Problem statement: Advertisements that contain humor are designed to be

entertaining but the ultimate goal of it like any other advertisement is to result in sales.
Hence, are the funny ads effective or just good for a laugh?

Humor though seems a light topic, is in fact not that simple and a very sensitive one.
While only making a way to be funny, there are chances that marketers offend the
potential customers. What may seem funny in a client presentation may not be funny on
an airplane, at a country club, in a hospital or simply how the potential customers
perceive it. Thus, the impact of humor used in advertising cannot be measured in laughter
and needs thorough factors analyzed related to it (Victoria, 2017).
 1

Advertisements having unique characters promote its products through humor which
still has chances to fail due to misunderstanding, resentment, annoyance and offensive
portrayal (Victoria, 2017). Hence it is important for companies to use humor in
advertisements carefully, and only after making an extensive and detailed marketing
research as a negative impact through comprehension can affect other evaluation factors
of advertisement too.

How humor is perceived by the target audience depends on the educational level, age,
gender, cultural background, ethnicity they belong to (Upadhyaya, 2015). In addition to
the demographics of target audience, humor although used in any manner is proved to be
more appropriate in advertising for low involvement products than high involvement
products and also has resulted to be effective for products rather than services
(Upadhyaya, 2015). It is imperative that advertisers are aware of the contingencies that
define humor’s effectiveness beforehand before attempting to use humorous television
advertisements. (Upadhyaya, 2015)

The fundamental question about the effectiveness of humor in advertising remains

unclear on many dimensions as attention, comprehension, persuasion and purchase
intention (Cline & Kellaris, 1999; Cline, Altsech, & Kellaris, 2003). The findings of past
studies however are controversial regarding the effectiveness of humor in advertising
(Zhang, 1996). As per large number of studies, it indicates that humorous advertisements
enhance advertising effectiveness (Spotts, Weinberger, & Parsons, 1997; Geuens & De
Pelsmacker, 2002). In contrast, the other view is supported by the studies suggest that
humorous advertisements do not always produce better results than non-humorous
advertisements (Cline & Kellaris, 1999; Weinberger & Gulas, 1992). In conclusion, the
perceived funniness of the commercial will affect the experienced emotions of the
consumer which affects the purchase intention (Gelb & Pickett 1983; Usunier & Lee
2013; Young 2004). Thus, this paper is to examine if the humor results positively in favor
of advertisements’ effectiveness or are the results contradicting is the case in Nepal too.

There have been pioneer researches in this topic with different sub topics and factors
but they were reasonably way behind of today’s time. Since, today’s marketing has
transformed since then and is nowhere similar to that of seventies, their findings also
 1

cannot be applied for today’s strategies. Analyzing at the previous research works, time
span of previous researches, factors, variables defined and the relationship studies are the
major gap in this topic.

The impact of humor is addressed and studied in this research under attention,
comprehension, entertainment and persuasion combinely directing to consumer purchase
intention. Furthermore, the critical question of advertisement’s effectiveness lies within
how humor is used, directed to which sort of audience group and for what product/service
type.

1.5.1 Research question What is the impact of humor used in advertising on consumer
purchase intention?

1.5.2 Sub questions:

- Does the attention component in humor impact on consumer purchase intention?
- Does the comprehension component in humor impact on consumer purchase
intention?
- Does the persuasion component in humor impact on consumer purchase intention?
- Do the enjoyment component in humor impact on consumer purchase intention?

Marc G. Weinberger and Charles S. Gulas (1992) have defined the relationship and
scales of the factors relating to humor in advertising. The factors defined are attention,
comprehension, persuasion, source credibility and liking. All of these factors are related
to humor used in advertising. Mehmdood and Masdood (2016) also defined and used
with the similar factors as of my research like attention, liking and persuasion that deals
with its effect on the consumer purchase intention that of telecommunication industry.
 1

1.6 Rationale of the Research Project

Once the advertiser has the audiences’ attention, keeping that attention becomes even
more challenging. Humor has proven to be the best techniques for cutting the clutter. In
reality, people of different professions use humor in various situations use humor to
create a desired reaction like politicians, actors, television presenters, public speakers,
professors and all of us at one point of time Shimp (2000) In the same way, advertisers
also use humor to achieve desired communication objective in their field. The major
purpose of using humor in advertising field would be to attain attention, guide consumer
understand product claims, influence attitudes and enhance recall ability about product
and ultimately create sales.

Annually, more than $400 billion is invested on advertisements globally. Beyond that
implicitly and explicitly, the aggregate economic impact of advertising touches every
consumer-product industry. Which involves high product category to lower ones as from
cars to candy bars (Ruta, 2012). The presence of humor on the content created in TV
advertising is undeniably significant and is more than half of figure. Where, these figures
often contribute to very effective of ads likewise.

The bright side of using humor is that as an impact, humorous ads are enjoyable,
involving, and memorable. In contrast to that fact, if the humor distracts from the focus of
branding and communication, it can alter the desired result regarding effectiveness. In
addition, how humor is perceived varies differently around the world and across different
audiences; because of this reason, there may be some restrictions on the usage and ability
of humorous ads across markets. Since humor has its significant proportion in the
advertising world, the investment should be ensured its impact. For which, its
effectiveness must be addressed as there has been immense monetary investment and
efforts since there’s a serious question of how the humor is perceived among the audience
as well for present and future actions.
 1

Figure 1: Global use of humor in ads

In general the study conducted here, provides an update and further insight into many
of the findings and issues raised by pioneer researches. This work fills a void between
earlier speculation from humor research in speech and psychology and the realities of
how humor works in an advertising context. By documenting here the collective wisdom
of leaders of the advertising community, it is hoped that other practitioners will gain
some insight regarding this topic. Also, the researchers will have a base with which they
can submit this collective wisdom to critical experimental testing with latest updates in
the field.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Humor is a usual and widespread phenomenon that is anything but difficult to spot
and appreciate, frequently activating giggling. It is likewise a tricky substance that is hard
to characterize and dissect. A word reference meaning of humor is the quality of being
interesting or comic, the capacity to express humor or entertain other people, a
disposition or perspective (Oxford dictionary). Stern (1996) suggests the term humor
itself breeds disarray by jumbling the formal parts of the boost ad with the reaction parts
 1

of consequences for buyers. In any case, humor shows up in different structures that such
a standard definition can't cover. Weinberger and Gulas (1992) called attention to in their
work that a sweeping, for the most part.

The principal humor writing was made by Sternthal and Craig (1973), following two
years Kelly and Solomon (1975) gave some examination on humor in TV publicizing,
made typology like quip, modest representation of the truth, joke, outrageous, parody and
incongruity, in 1979, Duncan discovered conduct point of view on Humor in Advertising,
later by Madden and Weinberger (1982). At that point a few years after the fact by
Weinberger and Gulas (1992), at that point Fugate (1998) discovered humorous ads
associated with nature of item, directed group of onlookers, message composes, medium
of promotions, correspondence objective and message position.

There has been seven sorts of humor characterized as emerged: slapstick, clownish
humor, surprise, misunderstanding, irony, satire, and parody (Buijzen & Valkenburg,
2014). Here’s a list of humor’s benefits in advertising that has also been shown and
proved by many other studies Fugate (1998).

 Humor grabs attention

 Humor enhances ad recall and its message

 Humor demonstrates we are human – we can laugh and smile with the rest of humanity

 Humor makes people like us – and by extension improves our brand image

A research as per marketing journal (1993) found that humor will probably fortify
review, assessment and buy aim when the funny message run together all around
coordinated with advertisement goals and is seen as sufficient in light of a legitimate
concern for the item portion. In such case, comical publicizing has constructive
outcomes, for example, ready to get a handle on crowd consideration, enhance
memorability, outflank deals obstruction, and give a lift to message influence. (Karell,
2018)
 1

Individuals' consideration and loving is expanded by humor when utilized as a part of

a publicizing in contrast with humorous vs. non-humorous advertisements. Additionally,
humor that is relatable to group of audience makes impact on customer purchase and
hence items are effectively promoted through that (Venkatesh and Senthilkumar, 2015).
This with everything taken into account demonstrates an uplifting demeanor toward items
and holding the message utilized as a part of promoting. The humorous publicizing has
increment enjoying the advertisement, as well as for the brand, decidedly regarding recall
factor (Venkatesh and Senthilkumar, 2015). Individuals draw themselves more towards
funny ads and exchange that positive inclination to the item (Venkatesh and
Senthilkumar, 2015). Humorous advertising has positive effect on brand awareness which
again has a positive link with customer purchase intention (Chang& Chang, 2014)

The inspection in television advertisement and its connection with purchase intention
comes about implication that the extent of ideas has a feature a positive connection
(Hemamalini, 2014). TV advertisings on client purchasing objectives inquiry discovered
that all components (trust, length, mood, redundancy) have positive association with
customer purchase intentions (Khuong and Nguyen, 2015).

Humor and Attention Studies have demonstrated that 94% of advertising specialists
consider funny content to be a compelling method to pick up consideration. Moreover,
55% of advertising research officials trust humor to be better than non-humor in picking
up attention (Madden and Weinberger 1984). The former studies have a blend of effects
about how audience perceive and understand the funny content. In an investigation of
1000 communicate plugs, Stewart and Furse (1986) discovered that a funny presentation
boosted up the level of comprehension in viewers for an ad. Different examinations also
have found comparable positive outcomes (Duncan, Nelson and Frontczak 1984;
Weinberger and Campbell 1991; Zhang and Zinkhan 1991).

Be that as it may, these investigations balance forcefully with the consequences of

other advertisement studies that have results of a major a negative connection amongst
humor and understanding (Cantor and Venus 1980; Gelb and Zinkhan 1986; Lammers et
al. 1983; Sutherland and Middleton 1983). Sternthal and Craig (1973) inferred that the
 1

diversion impact created by humor through funny presentation may prompt influence to
buy the product advertised in an ad. In contrast to that, they take note of a point that the
convincing impact of distraction is best case scenario no more prominent than that of
genuine serious approaches.

Madden and Weinberger (1984) found that just around one fourth i.e. 26% of these ad
professionals concurred with an announcement broadcasting humor to be more
convincing than non-humor advertising materials. Sternthal and Craig (1973) inferred
that amusingness upgraded the preferring of the source. The marketing literature provides
comparative solid help for boosting the preference using humor, which has been appeared
to increment both loving of the advertisement (Belch and Belch, 1984) and enjoying of
the brand (Gelb and Pickett 1983; Gelb and Zinkhan 1985; Duncan and Nelson 1985). By
and large, ten advertising studies and seven non-advertising studies shows a conclusion
that there’s a beneficial outcome of humor on preference while just two advertising and
three non-advertising reports conclude the report unbiased or blended discoveries.

Customers with more than a half of proportion i.e. 64.8% responded as for preferring
and being persuaded concerning funny promotion. The purpose behind it is the liveliness
in the notice and that doesn't just point of confinement as a fun thing to observe yet that
considers their buying intentions too (Suleman, 2014).

The specific reason that humorous commercials are organized and prioritized over
different sorts of mainstream advertisements is that the funny content is utilized as a
superior communicator. In fact, that has prompts accomplishing recognition for the item
and brand being promoted (Upadhyaya, 2015). Weinberger and Gulas (1992) recorded
promoting objectives which included understanding, influence, consideration and so forth
and the effect of humor on every one of these objectives.

Except for the time when a bad joke takes an offensive troll, in general the perception
of humorous advertisement is favorable from both practitioners’ and viewers’ views. 90%
of total audience watch and see humorous advertisement as effective tool (Upadhyaya,
2015).
 1

There's positive common view of professionals and audiences in general alike in

regards to both admitting they lean toward humor notices to serious ones. Nine tenth of
viewers see humor ads as powerful and dominant part and likewise they do watch humor
commercials. In other case, the high danger of diverting TV promotions would be the
terrible joke that could turn out frightfully hostile to watchers creating irreparable offence
(Weinberger and Gulas, 1992)

In terms of communication goals and roles of humorous television advertisements,

practitioners as well as viewers were unanimous as the common finding from both sides
found humorous advertising to enhance comprehension, liking for product or service and
increasing persuasion (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992). Both practitioners and viewers
strongly agree that humorous television advertisements’ attention grabbing role and its
ability to enhance product recall was significantly high (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992).
On persuasion however, only viewers gave a thumbs up for credibility and was in
unfavorably marked by practitioners. This is not surprising since results of studies on
humor and convincing factor has been ambiguous (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992).

As far as correspondence objectives and parts of humorous television commercials,

experts and also watchers were consistent as the normal finding from the two sides
discovered funny publicizing to upgrade perception, loving for item or benefit and
expanding influence (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992). The two experts and watchers
unequivocally concur that comical TV notices' eye catching part and its capacity to
upgrade item review was significantly high (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992). On influence
be that as it may, just watchers offered a go-ahead for believability and was in negatively
set apart by experts. This isn't astounding since aftereffects of concentrates on humor and
source believability has been uncertain (Weinberger and Gulas, 1992).

Hilarious TV ads works best to catch eye and does no subtraction to understanding
variable of an advertisement while it shockingly does not offer preference over non-
humor at expanding influence. Not at all like experts, who trust humor upgrades
influence; viewers then again don't give that unmistakable picture and here is the place
the perspectives negate. (Upadhyaya, 2015) Humor does not improve source believability
but rather in reality may hurt source validity. Another positive effect that is unmistakable
 1

through promotions is that humor improves likability for items and services promoted
with humor. (Upadhyaya, 2015)

Also the mixed findings from the studies show that not all the variables associated
with humor in advertising create positive impact and in addition to that the findings have
some degree of variation within same factors which is because of the difference of the
geography and the different target audience they research on. (Weinberger and Gulas,
1992). Other than that lion's share of the investigations and discoveries the studies and
findings are based 20-30 years before today’s time. Hence, this research will use
theoretical framework from empirical data of pioneer researches and add on to the
findings as per today’s relevance in advertising world. The previous published works are
giving some ideas about what factors involved in humor. This paper furnishes a detailed
review about Impact of humor in advertising.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

Humor

Attention
Consumer Purchase Intention
Comprehension

Persuasion

Entertainment

Figure 2: Theoretical Framework

 1

2.2 Hypothesis Development

H1: There is a significant relationship between attention and consumer purchase intention

H2: There is a significant relationship between comprehension and consumer purchase

intention.

H3: There is a significant relationship between persuasion in humorous advertisement

and consumer purchase intention

H4: There is a significant relationship between entertainment and purchase decision in

humor advertisement

3. METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research approach taken for achieving answers of research
questions as well as its design consisting processes and the tools used in carrying out this
research. This includes description of operationalization of the constructs, population to
which findings of this research may be generalized, process of collecting data,
instruments used to measure constructs, method of analyzing data and their presentation
in an effective manner.

The methodology of this research can be presented in following ways:

This research will be conducted by collecting data through quantitative approach.

This research instrument will be a questionnaire that has target audience i.e. people who
are accessible to the exposure of humorous advertisement in the digital form hence, we’ll
make the target audience fill up the questionnaire and give the data as per their views and
feelings regarding the advertisements.
 1

3.1 Research Design

The purpose of this study is to find the impact of humor used in advertising
leading in the consumer purchase intention.  Here, the study focuses on the statistical
measure that describes direction of a relationship between the variables. Hence, it is a
correlational study. As a researcher, I did not have any role to formulate or adjust the
study in any manner but, a humorous advertisement was demonstrated before filling up
the questionnaire, so the extent of researcher will be of moderate interference. The study
setting was natural with none of pre-planned environment, thus it was a non-contrived
setting.

The research strategy is survey research and data collection method was of
quantitative approach i.e. questionnaire among the target audience to gain the results
from diverse perceptive. The unit of analysis was be individual i.e. the respondents will
be required to fill up the survey on individual basis to get the response individually as an
audience. The data collection had only one time slot and was finished on one shot so the
time horizon was cross sectional.

The data analysis was done with the use of spss tools such as: mean correlation
and regression. They provided a clear picture of the responses, specifically the
relationship between the variables that we are trying to find out.

3.2 Sample and Sampling Procedures

Finally, the sampling design that I chose for this is judgmental sampling of non-
probability sampling. This is because of the survey questionnaire shall be distributed to
the accessible respondents who will be my university students, faculties, friends and
families.
 1

3.3 Instrument
The main instrument for this study is a questionnaire for primary data collection to
get the responses for the research questions and objectives relating to factors affecting the
consumers’ perception on humorous advertisement. The questionnaires are carefully
selected from previous literatures. The survey design, questionnaire format and outline
are powered by Google Forms. The survey can be taken online where the survey link is
generated by Google forms and participants just need to click the link which will lead
them to the survey. Prior to the main body of the questionnaire, there are 2 screening
questions. The purpose of the screening questions is to find out upon asked what type of
advertisements respondents prefer – humorous or non- humorous and what type of humor
do they like the most.

In the current research, the close-ended questionnaire was be used as a tool for data
collection. The questionnaire has been divided into two sections; the first is about
demographics, while the rest of the section consists of statements related to the dependent
and independent research variables. The questionnaire of the research will be developed
using five point’s Likert scale; the five options include: 1-Strongly disagree 2- Disagree
3-Moderately Disagree 4-Neutral 5-Moderately Agree, 6-Agree and 7- Strongly agree.
The main body of the questionnaire contains a total of 20 questions where each of which
contains questions relating to different parts of the study.

3.4 Data Analysis

The data collected from the questionnaire is analyzed using Statistical Package for
Social Sciences (SPSS). Three main analyses are performed, i.e. Cronbach’s alpha,
descriptive analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis and regression analysis.

First of all, Cronbach’s Alpha was used to measure internal consistency

("reliability") since we had multiple Likert questions in a survey/questionnaire that form
a scale and we wish to determine if the scale is reliable or not. After that, in the first
phase of analysis, descriptive analysis was conducted on the data collected by using
 1

analytical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean to measure the central tendency of
the sample and standard deviation to measures the variability or dispersion of the sample
distributions. Later, since this study also involved testing of hypothesis, a correlation
analysis was conducted to investigate the specific hypothesis about whether the selected
variables (factors) affect the dependent variable (consumer purchase intention). Hence,
Pearson Correlation was used to achieve the purpose in this study. Furthermore,
regression analysis was conducted to observe the extent of impact of independent
variable on the dependent variable.

4. RESULTS

4.1 Descriptive analysis

Figure 3: Respondents’ gender

 1

Figure 4: Respondents’ age

Figure 5: Respondents’ education

 1

Figure 6: Respondents’ profession

Figure 7: Respondents’ income per month

 1

Ad type Frequency Percent

Humorous advertisements 112 93.3

Non humorous advertisements 8 6.7

Total 120 100

Table 1: Preference on advertisement type

As the table depicts, as an answer to the question of: what type of advertisements
do you prefer? - Clearly shows that non-humorous advertisements are preferred very less
in comparison to humorous ones. Among 120 responses collected, only 6.7% of
respondents voted for non-humorous advertisements whereas the majority with 93.3% of
respondents’ preferred humorous advertisements.

Type of humor Frequency Percent

Pun 22 18.3
Irony 27 22.5
Satire 39 32.5
Parody 25 20.8
Slapstick 3 2.5
Others 4 3.3
Total 120 100

Table 2: Preference on type of humor

Upon asked the question of what type of humor do they like the most, the highest
frequency was voted for satire with a little less than one third of total votes. Following that
 1

number, pun, irony and parody were other types of humor that had significantly high votes.
However, slapstick had lowest of the votes with only three numbers. In addition to the given
categories, two of the respondents themselves added comments that they liked humor that can be
understood by all and the humor except for the one that offends particular group of people.

4.2 Reliability Analysis

This chapter reports, analyze and interpret the results of the current study. Before
proceeding further to analyze the data, reliability analyses of each instrument were
carried out to examine whether the items of the established instruments represent the
same factor structure and are reliable enough to capture the study variables in the
advertising context involving humor in it.

In order to test the reliability of items in the instrument, Cronbach’s alpha test was
done through SPSS. In general, the desire alpha value for a construct is at or greater than
0.7 for it to be considered reliable. However, for this study, an alpha value of
approximate at 0.5 or greater is considered acceptable. Thus, all constructs in the research
model are considered reliable as shown in table 1 below. Reliability test was applied to
ensure consistency in measurement across time and various items in the instrument
(Sekaran, 2005).

Reliability Statistics

Variable No. of Cronbach’s No. of items Cronbach’s

Items alpha after deletion alpha
 1

Attention 4 0.866 4 0.866

Comprehension 4 0.625 3 0.632
Entertainment 4 0.967 4 0.967
Persuasion 4 0.880 4 0.880
Purchase intention 4 0.956 4 0.956

Table 3: Cronbach’s alpha

The results of reliability analysis before and after item deletion are presented in
Table 3. The higher values of Cronbach’s alpha for these instruments suggested that these
instruments were reliable. Similarly, for comprehension, one of the items was deleted in
order to increase the value of Cronbach’s alpha. However, Comprehension still had the
lowest Cronbach’s alpha than any other instruments. From the above table, it is clearly
evident that entertainment has the highest scores of reliability with the Cronbach’s alpha
0.967 followed by others. Cronbach’s alpha which is also known as internal consistency
estimate of reliability of test scores were between 0.880 and 0.967 meeting the acceptable
value 0.6 (Sekaran, 2005; Hair et al.,2006; Kaiser,1974).

4.3 Descriptive Statistics

Average score of statements regarding study variables

Questions Mean
Statements regarding attention
This ad really holds my attention 5.408
I did concentrate in this ad 5.108
I was very involved with the ad 4.725
I noticed minor details in the ad 3.892
Statements regarding comprehension
The ad was easy to understand 5.417
The ad was straightforward 4.583
The meaning of ad is unambiguous 4.092
Statements regarding entertainment
The ad is fun to watch 5.858
The ad is enjoyable to look at 5.717
 1

The ad is interesting to watch 5.658

The ad is pleasing to watch 5.208
Statements regarding persuasion
This ad was convincing 4.567
This ad persuades me to try the product 4.283
I am interested in how this product looks on me 3.808
The ad made me think about the product positively 4.758
Statements regarding purchase intention
I intend to try this product 4.717
I would consider purchasing the product 4.683
I plan on buying this product 4.642
I am eager to check out the product because of its advertisement 4.625

Table 4: mean scores of statements regarding study variables

Regarding the statements relating to attention, the average score suggest that
respondents moderately agree that the humorous ad holds their attention and they do
concentrate in the ad. But, their involvement with the ad and behaviour of noticing
significant details are neutral on these statements.

Similarly, respondents moderately agree that the ad was easy to understand but
their views on the ads being straightforward and unambiguous were neutral. Whereas, all
the four statements have similar and somewhat higher scores regarding entertainment as
the respondents moderately agree that the ad was pleasing to watch and agree that the ad
was fun, interesting and enjoyable to watch. Regarding persuasion, respondents
moderately disagreed that they were interested to look how the product would look on
them, but were neutral on the statement that the ad persuaded them to try the product.
Also, respondents had consistent neutral views on the ad being convincing and carrying a
positive image. Finally, about the purchase intention, all of the related statements do have
a slightly more value than a neutral score. Hence, they were between neutral and
moderately agree regarding trying the product, considering purchasing the product,
planning on buying the product and eager to check out the product because of the ad.
 1

The examination of overall mean scores of independent variables: attention,

comprehension, entertainment and persuasion & dependent variable: consumer purchase
intention suggests that their average mean per construct are as follows:

Descriptive Statistics
N Mean Std. Deviation
Attention 120 4.7833 1.57079
Comprehension 120 4.6972 1.39828
Entertainment 120 5.6104 1.68838
Persuasion 120 4.3542 1.55656
Purchase Intention 120 4.6667 1.71386

Table 5: Mean score of study variables

As can be seen in the table above, the average mean of all the study variables that
were converted into a construct have demonstrated similar average score except for
entertainment. The entertainment construct has a slightly higher score of 5.6104 that
means 120 respondents gave an average score between moderately agree and agree to all
of the four statements regarding entertainment demonstrated in humorous advertisements.
It can be interpreted that viewers feel entertained by the use of humor in the
advertisements and that is the factor that they remember and prioritize the most while
scoring the overall impact of advertisement on them.

However, surprisingly, other independent variables: attention, comprehension,

persuasion and dependent variable: purchase intention all of them similar scores around
four and more. The score four means neutral and five means moderately agree. Thus,
attention has the second highest score of 4.7833 after entertainment, which implies that
after entertainment, attention factor has significant impact followed by comprehension,
purchase intention and persuasion.
 1

4.4 Correlation analysis

Pearson correlation coefficients between different study variables are presented in
Table 4. The correlation coefficients were used to assess the nature and strength of
relationships between different study variables. The coefficients are shown in the table
below.

Attention Comprehensio Entertainmen Persuasion Purchase

n t Intention
Attention 1 .603** .757** .583** .582**
Comprehensio .603** 1 .643** .610** .596**
n
Entertainment .757** .643** 1 .665** .742**
Persuasion .583** .610** .665** 1 .880**
Purchase .582** .596** .742** .880** 1
Intention
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Source: Results drawn from SPSS-21
Table 6: Correlation analysis among different study variables

 Statistically significant relationship (p<.01) exist between attention and purchase

intention with the correlation score of .582. The nature of relationship is positive.
Attention also has significant and positive relationship with comprehension,
entertainment and persuasion with a score of .603, .757 and .582 respectively.
 The relationship between comprehension and purchase intention is significant (p<.01)
with the correlation score of .596. The nature of the relationship is positive.
Comprehension also has significant positive relationship with attitude, entertainment
and persuasion with a score of .603, .643 and .610 respectively.
 The relationship between entertainment and purchase intention is significant (p<.01)
with the correlation score of .742. The nature of the relationship is positive.
Entertainment also has significant positive relationship with attitude, comprehension
and persuasion with a score of .757, .643 and .665 respectively.
 1

 The relationship between persuasion and purchase intention is significant (p<.01)

with the correlation score of .880. The nature of the relationship is positive.
Persuasion also has significant positive relationship with attitude, comprehension and
entertainment with a score of .583, .610 and .665 respectively.

4.5 Regression analysis

Above results indicate that all relationships between different study variables are in
the expected directions. But for further detailed analysis, these correlation analyses are
not robust enough to test the proposed hypotheses. So, regression analyses were
conducted. Thus, regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationships
between independent and dependent variables.

While conducting regression analysis, dependent and independent variables were

introduced. The standardized beta coefficients, F-statistics, R2 and R2 change from
different regression analyses with dependent and independent variables are presented in
Table 5 respectively.

Model summary

Model R R2
Attention .582 .339
Comprehension .596 .355
Entertainment .742 .550
Persuasion .880 .775

Table 7: Regression analysis of study variables

The "R" column represents the value of R, the multiple correlation

coefficient. R can be considered to be one measure of the quality of the prediction of the
dependent variable; in this case, all the individual variables are presented with their
respective R and R2 values. Basically, the value of R denotes the level of prediction and
 1

the linear relationship, while R2 denotes the proportion of variance in the dependent
variable that can be explained by the independent variables.

As can be seen in the table, Persuasion has the strongest of the linear relationship
with a value of 0.880 with a value of R=0.880, indicating a good level of prediction. In
contrast to that, attention has the least of the linear relationship among all while the
predictability cannot be considered that bad but of moderate level.

The table illustrates the values of R2 where it is clear that Persuasion has the
highest value .775 followed by entertainment .550, comprehension .355 and attention .
339. This can be explained as; 33.9% of variation in the independent variable purchase
intention is explained by attention. Similarly, 35.5%, 55% and 77.5% of variation in the
independent variable purchase intention is explained by attention by comprehension,
entertainment and persuasion respectively.

Model R R2
1 .907a .822
a. Predictors: Dependent variables (Attention, Comprehension, Entertainment and Persuasion)
Independent variables (Purchase Intention)
Table 8: Multiple Regression analysis of the model

It is clearly evident from the table that the value of R .907 means in aggregate, the
dependent variables have strong linear relationship with good level of prediction. Also,
R2 has the value of .822, which can be interpreted as 82.2% of variation in the
independent variable: purchase intention is explained by attention, comprehension,
entertainment and persuasion aggregately.
 1

4.6 ANOVA

Model Sum of Squares Df Mean Square F Sig.

Regression 287.239 4 71.810 132.548 .000b

Residual 62.303 115 .542

Total 349.542 119
a. Dependent Variable: Purchase Intention

b. Predictors: (Independent), Persuasion, Attention, Comprehension, Entertainment

Table 9: ANOVA table

The F-ratio in the ANOVA table above tests whether the overall regression model is a
good fit for the data. The table shows that the independent variables statistically
significantly predict the dependent variable, F (4, 115) = 132.548, p < .0005 (i.e., the
regression model is a good fit of the data).

Coefficientsa

Model Unstandardized Coefficients

B Std. Error
(Constant) .194 .260
Attention .091 .068
Comprehension .000 .068
Entertainment .340 .069
Persuasion .777 .061
a. Dependent variable: Purchase intention

Table 10: Coefficients table

Unstandardized coefficients indicate how much the dependent variable varies with an
independent variable when all other independent variables are held constant. Considering
 1

the effect of attention in this example, the unstandardized coefficient, B1, for attention is
equal to .194 which means that for one unit of increase in attention factor, there’s an
increase in .091 unit of purchase intention.
The unstandardized coefficient B for comprehension is .000 which indicates that
given an increase in a unit of comprehension factor, there’s no increase in the ultimate
purchase intention of customers. Similarly, the unstandardized coefficient B for
entertainment is .340 and for persuasion is .777 which with every one unit of increase in
entertainment and persuasion factor, there’s .340 unit and .77 increase respectively.

A multiple regression was run to find out the impact of independent variables on
dependent variable. These variables statistically significantly Purchase intention, F(4,
115) = 132.548, p < .0005, R2 = .822. All four variables added statistically significantly
to the prediction, p < .05.

4.7 Hypotheses Testing

Based on the results of reliability analysis, correlation analyses and regression
analyses, four hypotheses were tested. All analyses were performed on relationships. The
findings from the analyses are summarized in the table below:

Hypotheses Independent Dependent Variable Hypothesized Finding

Variable Relationship
H1 Attention Purchase Intention Positive Supported
H2 Comprehension Purchase Intention Positive Supported
H3 Entertainment Purchase Intention Positive Supported
H4 Persuasion Purchase Intention Positive Supported

Table 11: Hypotheses testing

As the table clearly depicts, all of the four hypotheses are supported. The findings
regarding this result is backed by the results of correlation analysis according to which,
all four independent variables have significant and positive relationship with the
dependent variable consumer purchase intention.
 1

5. DISCUSSION

5.1 Summary, discussion and implication

It is clear that from the findings that the humor used in advertising has impacts
that have variation as per our study variables. Therefore, this study holds an importance
as it reflects the perception from customers point of view as four main components of
humor (attention, comprehension, entertainment and persuasion) were analyzed in terms
independent variables creating an impact on consumer purchase intention. And effects
were studied so as to find out whether the four study variables have significant effect on
purchase intention or not. Moreover this study also looks at the perspective of how
humor is perceived in terms of study variables and its relation with end goal of an
advertiser i.e. consumer purchase intention in Nepali context as all the responses are
collected from Nepalese.

This chapter presents the findings of the study and the discussion on those
findings in light of the findings of previous studies. Comparisons of the findings of
present study with the findings of several previous studies in different country context are
also presented. Based on the findings, practical and relevant research implications and
significance of the study are discussed. At the end, critical evaluation of the study
highlights the shortcomings/limitations is also presented.

5.2 Major findings

The examination of overall descriptive statistics shows that most of the
respondents are students pursuing their Bachelor’s degree who are earning less than
10,000. Likewise, it is also examined from the overall mean scores of independent
variables: attention, comprehension, entertainment and persuasion that most of the people
have given scores around neutral but favorable scores regarding the overall view.
 1

But, specifically the respondents find themselves more entertained than paying
deep attention, understanding the content and directly being swept away via convincing
factor of the humorous advertisement. In lighter note, the respondents find themselves
amused, entertained and interested as the watching the advertisement is a pleasing to
them because of the fun factor in it. Other than that, they find that the ad holds their
attention but they do not necessarily give attention to minor details. Similarly the
respondents find the ads straightforward and develop a purchase intention in neutral sense
but in favorable manner as the neutral scores are inclined to the agreeable side.

First of all in order to validate the questionnaire reliability analysis was done. It
was found from the reliability analysis that the Cronbach’s alpha for all the independent
variables (attention, comprehension, entertainment and persuasion) and dependent
variable (consumer purchase intention) were greater than 0.6 and hence the questionnaire
was reliable to predict the outcome.

This can be explained as; 33.9% of variation in the independent variable purchase
intention is explained by attention. Similarly, 35.5%, 55% and 77.5% of variation in the
independent variable purchase intention is explained by attention by comprehension,
entertainment and persuasion respectively.

It was seen from the analysis that role attention explained 33.9% of variation in
purchase intention which indicated, consumer purchase intention is moderately affected
by attention. In similar manner, comprehension only explained 33.5% of variation in
consumer purchase intention. And entertainment explained only 55% of variation in
purchase intention, which is slightly more than half of the total proportion. While, the
highest of the impact in the variation caused in consumer purchase intention is explained
by persuasion i.e. of 77.5%. When overall analysis was done it was found that the
independent variables aggregately explained 82.2% of the variations in dependent
variable, which is significantly high. This can be interpreted as all the variables
contribute highly and have an impact in consumer purchase intention.

The astonishing finding derived by Suleman (2014) provides evidence that in

spite of the fact that humorous advertisements are being loved by the viewers; however
 1

they have a tendency to have lesser effect since shoppers have favored preferred surprise
appeal more than humorous appeal. This finding totally contradicts with that of the
results derived by this research as consumers more than 90% prefer to have their
preference on humorous advertisements than serious ones. It was likewise found that
comical notice affects buyer's buying aim since customers will probably be persuaded
through clever commercial as they like the liveliness in the promotion. However, this
finding from the same study done by Suleman (2014) supports the results of this research
as well.

In supportive view, Kovindasamy and Ogundare (2017) have derived a

conclusion that supports the impact of humor in consumer purchase intention that is
positive. As per both the studies, humor does have an impact on consumer purchase
intention with common factors being attention and entertainment playing major role in
favorable manner.

In this study there was significant and relationship between attention,

comprehension, entertainment and persuasion with purchase intention. The result
indicated that when people perceive attention, entertainment and persuasion positively,
their purchase intention also increases. Whereas, comprehension has no significant role in
relating to consumer purchase intention in this regard. However, among the variable that
have create impact, persuasion has the major role, followed by entertainment and
attention. This implies that the more humorous advertisement is persuasive; higher are
the chances of consumer buying that product. Same thing applies to entertainment and
attention but in descending extent.

5.3 Discussion
In this section findings of the study pertaining to each variable of interest are
reviewed in the light of the findings of previous studies.

The study found that when it comes to advertisement of a persuasion and

entertainment were the two things that largely affected purchase intention whereas
responses were less significant about comprehension and attention. This finding is
 1

interesting and very new which contrast with what is observable in current context in the
world. As most of the advertisements as of now are competing all the way to beat the
previous one and that is visible through the attention factor they grab the most. For
instance, (Khuong and Nguyen, 2015) concluded that the attention and comprehension
factor have significant positive relation with consumer purchase intention which is
supported by this research as well.

This research brings up new light to the previous knowledge presented by Stewart
and Furse (1986) as that literature was in favor of comprehension being the vital factor
leading to positive outcome in sales. In contrast to that finding, as per this research, the
comprehension does have significant and positive relationship with consumer purchase
intention. In addition to that, it can explain the 35.5% of variation in consumer purchase
intention but increase or decrease on the way viewers comprehend the advertisement do
not necessarily have any effects either direct or indirect.

Regarding the fun factor of humorous advertisements, the results generated by

this research adds on to what has been derived by Suleman (2014). Previously it was
found that the humor used in advertising is able to make an impact because of the
liveliness and playfulness it creates. This research also supports this finding as in the
average mean scores per construct; entertainment has the highest average scores from
respondents on advertisement being fun and interesting. This implies that the advertising
containing humor is pleasing to watch as it interest the audience and they like it in
positive way.

The point of total disparity between two findings is about the attention factor as it
was earlier recorded as the highest of all factors to have positive outcomes regarding
purchase intention, but compared to among all other factors, attention does have least of
all the correlation scores. It is 33% which cannot be defined as lowest in any degree but
other factors have done much better leading to the outcome desired.

Attention and consumer purchase intention

 1

This study found the attention factor in humorous advertisements is positively

associated with consumer purchase intention. To simplify, as the increase in attention
grabbing content in an advertisement increases the purchase intention of people. Hence,
higher the humor grabs attention and makes the viewers involved in the advertisement,
the audiences are more likely to buy the product.

The finding of the research contradicts with previous findings as in most of the
previous findings it was found that attention in humorous advertisement is the most
effective factor involved in humor but as per the results of this study, attention creates
impact but not to the extent as other factors have turned out to be doing. Hence, it can be
categorized to have an impact moderately on the purchase intention. However, the
importance of attention cannot be prioritized as the ad views are largely dependent on
attention and in addition to that, attention is primarily the one that makes the audience
recall the ad afterwards.

Comprehension and consumer purchase intention

This study found that that there is significant relationship between comprehension
and consumer purchase intention which suggests that the understanding level of
consumers have impact on how they perceive the advertisement and that has ultimate
impact on their purchase intention.

The finding is really interesting as it gives light to the topic that has had
ambiguous results earlier (Weinberger and Gulas, 2015). As per their revised study,
comprehension has significantly bigger role than persuasion, but as per this study
persuasion has greater impact than comprehension in persuading consumers purchase
intention. But interestingly, comprehension and persuasion are interrelated. The result
further suggests that advertisement regardless of target audience can gain advantage from
creating the contents that maximize the comprehension, as that’ll create further
opportunities to grab as after understanding the ad will lead to develop liking, interest and
in that case persuasion has high chance of working as well.
 1

Entertainment and consumer purchase intention

The third variable that was tested was entertainment. From the findings of the
research it was found that entertainment also has significantly positive relationship with
consumer purchase intention. In other words as the advertisement is more and more
entertaining, higher are the chances of purchase intention of the product.

The findings of this research do not contradict with the previous other researches.
According to a previous research (Venkatesh and Senthilkumar, 2015), humorous ads are
better at achieving the purchasing goals than non-humorous ads and the reason is majorly
because of the amusing factor it has in it. Also, entertainment has the highest of the
overall mean scores on questionnaire and has significant impact on the dependent
variable consumer purchase intention. Other than attention, entertainment is the other
factor that makes humorous advertisement unique and likeable.

Persuasion and consumer purchase intention

Previously, Stewart and Furse (1986) found no effect of humor on persuasion. But
in overall, the advertising literature has produced five studies that indicate a positive
effect of humor on persuasion, eight studies which indicate a neutral or mixed effect, and
one which produced a negative effect. As per this research persuasion has significantly
positive relationship with consumer purchase intention and can explain the largest
proportion of variation caused in the dependent variable. Surprisingly, the mean scores of
the statements regarding persuasion have also scored same as that of attention in the
questionnaire which tendency was not observed in earlier studies. It can be viewed as that
the persuasion factor is not that behind in the presentation of the advertisement while it
has higher chances of creating an impact compared to other factors.
 1

5.4 Implication
As hypothesized and in line with the previous empirical findings, this study has
established the linkage humor in advertising with purchase intention. It was analyzed
from the findings that all the independent variables (attention, comprehension,
entertainment and persuasion) have significant positive relationship with dependent
variables. Since the research deals with purchase intention of customers and also with the
factors that affect it, the findings can have significant and practical implications to
advertisers, companies and research implication to researchers. The practical and research
implications are discussed in the section below:

5.4.1 Practical implication

This study explains the impact of humor used in advertisement and its effect on
consumer purchase intention. Basically, how the factors associated with humor are
studied under the study variables were examined in relation to consumer purchase
intention and it was found that all of the independent variables have direct relationship
with dependent variable.

Humor draws in the general attention considering both funny and serious appeals
(Venkatesh and Slethikumar, 2014), numerous investigations demonstrates humor is not
harmful for influencing sales and providing insight about the product through
promotions. Humorous passages convey any information much easier, which is a major
strength of this approach for practitioners.

Therefore, it is suggested that advertisers should keep in mind the effect of major
factors associated with humor, as advertising their product can produce better results
focusing on the end goal while keeping the strength and weakness of that factor
beforehand. As the findings shows humor has significant positive relationship with
purchase intention. We can see as the not only attention but other factors like
comprehension, entertainment and persuasion do have equal and more impact on the
purchase intention. Hence, it is very wise for brands or companies to keep in mind the
 1

effect of each factor in consumer purchase intention and make the most out of the
investment as per the desired goal of the advertisement.

As generally it is stereotypical of in layman’s understanding that using humor is

only to entertain, but in reality there are other set of factors too that needs equal attention.
However, in light with the present findings one can observe that companies need to be
cautious regarding issues of only focusing on one visible factor as attention and
entertainment and study related factors and use them for real. And lastly, not to forget as
per additional comments on the types of humor preferred, respondents strictly mentioned
they would like to have short and straightforward ads that did not make fun of any group
or creed to enhance humor. Hence, practitioners must be very careful while creating
content for humor too because as said by Winston Churchill- “A joke is a very serious
thing!”

5.4.2 Implications for future research

During this research, there are several uncovered topics that are not within the scope
of the study. Following are some interesting grounds of study that can be researched in
future:

 To look at which type of humor is best suited for Nepalese television advertising.
 Disadvantages of using a humor in advertising.
 A research on the preference on humor in advertisement as per different age
groups and gender.

5.5 Critique of the study

This study confirmed that humor used in advertising effects the consumer
purchase decision and also that the relation between two is significantly positive. With no
research conducted taking into consideration from the view of Nepali customers, this
study has significant contribution to Nepali advertising industry and also to brands and
organizations as it opens up an avenue for the Nepali researchers for further investigation.
Despite these contributions and strong support from past literatures, this study possesses
several limitations and delimitations which are described below:
 1

Some of the major shortcomings of this study are non-randomness of the sample
i.e. convenient sampling, smaller sample size and uneven distribution of sample across
various places, use of self-report measures and voluntary nature of participation, which
may restrict the validity and generalization of the findings.

This study did not use random sampling method because the study did not have
empirical evidences in the Nepali customers as well as Nepali context and was focused it
building grounds for further research. When many studies suggested that humor in
advertisement effects consumer purchase intention, this study supports the result but
contradicts on the in depth findings that it has generated within the analysis regarding
each factor associated with humor. Therefore, caution should be taken while interpreting
the results. However, the test of common method bias indicated that is not a problem.
Also this study have time limit as it was conducted within three months. Therefore it is a
cross sectional studies not a longitudinal study.

The samples were distributed through online. Therefore only people who were
literate enough to use internet were used as sample. Even though the descriptive statistics
showed that there were people of different economic background and different age, this
should also be considered.
 1

Appendices

I. Questionnaire

Sex Male Female

Age 18-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 56-65 66-

above

Education Primary school High school University

Occupation ………………………………………………..

Employment status at present Employed Unemployed Retired

Incomes per month less than Rs 10,000 Rs 10,000-30,000 Rs 30,000-50,000

Rs 50,000-100,000 Rs 100,000 and above

1. What type of advertisements do you prefer?

 1

Humorous ads Non humorous ads

2. What type of humor would you prefer in advertisements?

Slapstick Pun Irony Satire Parody

3. After reviewing above ad, please give your view on following questions:

For each question please circle the appropriate answer.

Statements Strongly Strongly

Disagree Agree
Statements regarding attention
1 This ad really holds my attention 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
2 I did concentrate in this ad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3 I was very involved with the ad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
4 I noticed minor details in the ad 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statements regarding comprehension 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5 The ad was easy to understand 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
6 The ad was straightforward 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
7 The meaning of ad is ambiguous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 The meaning of ad is uncertain 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statements regarding entertainment
9 The ad is fun to watch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
10 The ad is enjoyable to look at 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
11 The ad is interesting to watch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
12 The ad is pleasing to watch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statements regarding persuasion
 1

13 This ad was convincing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

14 This ad persuades me to try the product 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
15 I am interested in how this product looks on me 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
16 The ad made me think about the product positively 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Statement regarding Purchase Intention 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
17 I intend to try this product 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
18 I would consider purchasing the product 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
19 I plan on buying this product 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
20 I am eager to check out the product because of its 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
advertisement

II. Participation Information sheet

RESEARCH TITLE

A study on impact of humor in advertising and its effect on purchase intention.

INVITATION

I would like to request you to participate in this original research project. You should
only participate if you want to; choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in any
way. Before you decide whether you want to take part, it is important for you to
understand why the research is being done and what your participation will involve.

RESEARCH AIMS
This project aims to find whether the humour used in advertisement has effects on
purchase intention.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN?
In this research study, you will be asked to answer the questions in questionnaire format
that will help us in our research.
 1

TIME COMMITMENT

As a participant, you’ll just need to give couple of minutes filling up the questionnaire so
that we can achieve the aim of this project.

PARTICIPANT’S RIGHT

You may decide to stop being a part of the research study at any time without
explanation. You have the right to ask that any data you have supplied to that point be
withdrawn/destroyed.

You have the right to omit or refuse to answer or respond to any question that is asked of
you (as appropriate, “and without penalty”). You have the right to have your questions
about the procedures answered (unless answering these questions would interfere with
the study’s outcome). Your participation in this study is voluntary.

CONFIDENTIALITY/ANONYMITY

The data we collect will not contain any personal information about you except your
personal view regarding this research. No one will link the data you provided to the
identifying information you supplied. The information you give us during the interview
will be completely anonymous. The information you provided shall not be leaked and
will be seen only by our group members.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

I will be glad to answer your questions about this study at any time. You may contact us
at Kathmandu University School of Management (KUSOM). Contact no: 01-5186029

III. Consent form

PROJECT TITLE: The impact of humorous advertisement on consumer purchase
intention.

By signing below, you are agreeing that:

 1

(1) You have read and understood the Participant Information Sheet
(2) Questions about your participation in this study have been answered satisfactorily,
(3) You are taking part in this research study voluntarily (without coercion).

Participant’s Name _________________________________

_________________________________ _________________________________

Participant’s signature Date

_______________________________ _________________________________

Name of person obtaining consent: Signature of person obtaining consent:

 1

Bibliography

Alden, D. L., Hoyer, W. D., & Lee, C. (1993). Identifying Global and Culture Specific
Dimensions of Humor in Advertising :A Multinational Analysis, 57(April), 64–75.

Beard, F. K. (2008). Advertising and Audience Offense: The Role of Intentional Humor.
Journal of Marketing Communications, 14(1), 1–17.
doi:10.1080/13527260701467760.

Belch, G.E. & Belch, M.A., (1984) An Investigation of the Effects of Repetition on
Cognitive and Affective Reactions to Humorous and Serious Television
Commercials. Advances in Consumer Research, (11), 4-10

Duncan, C.P., Nelson, J.E., & Frontczak, N.T. (1984), The Effect of Humor on
Advertising Comprehension, Advances in Consumer Research, (11), 432-437.

Cantor, J., & Venus, P. (1980), The Effect of Humor on Recall of a Radio Advertisement.
Journal of Broadcasting, 24 (1), 13-22.

Catanescu, C., & Gail, T. "Types of humor in television and magazine advertising,
Review of Business Saints Joseph University, 22.1 (2001): 92-95
 1

Chang, W. Y., & Chang, Y. (2014).The Influences of Humorous Advertising on Brand

Popularity and Advertising Effects in the Tourism Industry Sustainability, 6,
9205-9217. Retrieved from www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability

Chang, Y. Y., & Bandyopadhyay, S. (2014). The impact of American advertising humor
on Taiwanese consumers.The International Business & Economics Research
Journal (Online), 13(1), 93.

Cline, T. W., & Kellaris, J. J. (1999). The Joint Impact of Humor and Argument Strength
in a Print Advertising Contest: A Case for Weaker Arguments. Psychology &
Marketing, 16, 69-86.

Cline, T. W., Altsech, M. B., & Kellaris, J. J. (2003). When does humor enhance or
inhibit ad responses? The moderating role of the need for humor. Journal of
Advertising, 32, 31-45.

Eisend, M. (2010). How humor in advertising works. A meta-analytic test of alternative

models, 22(2), 115–132.doi:10.1007/s11002-010-9116-z. 19.

Fugate, D. L. (1998). The advertising of services: what is an appropriate role for humor?
Journal of Services Marketing, 12(6), 453–472.
doi:10.1108/08876049810242731.

Gelb, B. D., & Pickett, C. M. (1983). Attitude-Toward-the-AD: Links to Humor and to

Advertising Effectiveness. Journal of Advertising, 12(2), 34–42.
doi:10.1080/00913367.1983.10672838.

Gelb, B. D., & Zinkhan, G. M. (1985).The Effect of Repetition on Humor in a Radio

Advertising Study.Journal of Advertising, 14(4), 13–68.
doi:10.1080/00913367.1985.10672966

Gulas, C. S., Mckeage, K. K., & Weinberger, M. G. (1992).IT ’ S JUST A JOKE.

Violence Against Males in Humorous Advertising, 4(Winter), 109–121.
doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367390408.
 1

Hemamalini, K.S., & Kurup, S.K. (2014). Effectiveness of Television Advertisement on

Purchase Intention. International Journal of Innovative Research in Science,
Engineering and Technology, 3(2), 2-7.

Karell, D. (2014, April 9). Is humor in advertising effective? Retrieved from

https://online.pointpark.edu/public-relations-and-advertising/humor-in-
advertising/

Khattak, M. A., & Baig, M. (2016). Impact Of Humor In Advertising Marketing. On

Purchase Intent A Study To Investigate The Effectiveness Of Humor When
Introduced In Marketing Communication As Advertisement, 4(2), 16-25.

Khuwong, M.N., & Nguyen, T.D. (2015). The Effects of Television Commercials on
Customers Purchase Intention – A Study of Milk Industry in Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam. Journal of Economics, Business and Management, 3(9), 2-7.

Lammers, H., Bruce, L L., Seymour,G.E., & Hennessey J.E. (1983), Humor and
Cognitive Responses to Advertising Stimuli. A Trace Consolidation Approach,"
Journal of Business Research, 11 (2), 173-185.

Bolzmann, L.A., Chakraborty, G., & Mowen, J. (2000). Effects of Absurdity in

Advertising. The Moderating Role of Product Category Attitude and the
Mediating Role of Cognitive Responses, Journal of Advertising, 29(1), 35-49.

Kovindasamy, S.K., & Ogundare, E.A. (2017). A study of humour advertisement and its
influence on consumer purchasing decision: Evidence from Malaysia.
International Journal of Accounting & Business Management, 5(2), 5-19.

Madden, T. J., & Weinberger, M. G. (1982). The Effects of Humor on Attention in

Magazine Advertising.Journal of Advertising, 11(3), 8–14.
doi:10.1080/00913367.1982.10672806.

Madden, T. J., & Weinberger, M. G. (1989). Humor in Advertising: A Practitioner View.

Journal of advertising research, 24(4), 23-29.
 1

Malik, M. E., Ghafoor, M. M., & Iqbal, H. K. (2014). The Impact of Advertisement and
Consumer Perception on Consumer Buying Behavior. International Review of
Social Sciences and Humanities, 6(2), 55-64

Mehmdood, H. (2016). Impact of Humor in Advertising on Consumer Purchase

Intention: A Study on Ufone Network from Telecommunication Sector in
Pakistan. International Review of Management and Business Research, 5(3). 1-4.

Ritchie, G. (2009). Can Computers Create Humor? AI Magazine, 30(3), 71.

Ruta, K (2012). Advertising: Using Words as Tools for Selling Second Edition. Retrieved
from https://books.google.com.np/books?id=ruCfAwAAQBAJ

Shimp, T. A. (2000). Advertising promotion. Supplemental aspects of integrated

marketing communications (5th ed). San Diego, CA: Harcourt College Publishers.

Spotts, H. E., Weinberger, M. G., & Parsons, A. L. (1997). Assessing the Use and Impact
of Humor on Advertising Effectiveness: A Contingency Approach. Journal of
Advertising, 26(3), 17–32. doi:10.1080/00913367.1997.10673526

Stern, B. (1996). Advertising comedy in Electronic Drama: The Construct, Theory and
Taxonomy. European Journal of Marketing, 30(9), 37-59.

Sternthal, B., & Craig, C. S. (1973). Humor in Advertising. The Journal of Marketing, 37,

12-18.

Stewart, D.M., & Furse, D.H. (1986). Effective Television Advertising. Lexington, MA:
Lexington Books.

Suleman, S. (2014). The Impact of Humorous Advertisement on Consumer Purchase

Intention. Retrieved from
http://111.68.99.22:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/5591?show=full

Sutherland, J. C., & Middleton, L.A. (1983). The Effect of Humor on Advertising
Credibility and Recall of the Advertising Message. In Proceedings of the 1983
Convention of The American Academy of Advertising, 17-21.
 1

Suttle, R. (2018, June 29). Three Main Advertising Objectives. Chron, Retrieved from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-main-advertising-objectives-21779.html

Venkatesh, S., & Senthilkumar, N. (2015). Effectiveness of humor advertising on

advertising success. International Journal of Management and Social Science
Research Review, 1(9), 171-179.

Upadhyaya, M. (2015). The Impact Of Humorous Television Advertisement In Customer

Opinion In Bahrain. Indian Journal of Commerce & Management Studies, 6(3), 3-
25.

Verma, S. (2009). Do All Advertising Appeals Influence Consumer Purchase Decision:

An Exploratory Study. Global Business Review, 10(1), 33-43. Doi:
10.1177/097215090801000102.

Victoria, C. (2017. June 29) Humor in advertising. Retrieved from

https://www.experience.com/advice/careers/professions/humor-in-advertising/

Wang, V. L., Kevin W. C., Wang, Y.J., and Jie. W. (2014). Enculturated Pleasure: A
Study in Multicultural Engagement. Journal Of Advertising Research, 54, 320-
331.

Weinberger, M.G., & Gulas, C.S. (1992). The Impact of Humor in Advertising: A
Review. Journal of Advertising, 21(4), 35-39, doi:
10.1080/00913367.1992.10673384

Weinberger, M.G., & Campbell, L. (1991), The Use and Impact of Humor in Radio
Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, 31(6), 44-52.

Zhang, Y. (1996). The Effect of Humor in Advertising: An Individual-Difference

Perspective. Psychology and Marketing, 13(6), 531-545.

Zhang, Y., & Zinkhan, G.M. (1991), Humor in Television Advertising in Advances in
Consumer Research. 18, 813-818.
 1

Zhang, Y., & Zinkhan, G. M. (2006). Responses to Humorous ADS: Does Audience
Involvement Matter? Journal of Advertising, 35(4), 113–127.