Nonprofit Advertising and Behavioral Intention: The Effects of Persuasive Messages on Donation ...

198 Pages·2014·0.97 MB·English

by  Van Steenburg, Eric

NONPROFIT ADVERTISING AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTION: THE EFFECTS
OF PERSUASIVE MESSAGES ON DONATIONS AND VOLUNTEERISM

Eric Van Steenburg, B.A., B.J., M.A.
Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

August 2013

APPROVED:
Nancy Spears, Committee Chair
Lou E. Pelton, Committee Member
Stacy Landreth Grau, Committee Member
Jeffrey K. Sager, Committee Member and
Chair of the Department of Marketing
and Logistics
O. Finley Graves, Dean of the College of
Business
Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate
School
Van Steenburg, Eric. Nonprofit Advertising and Behavioral Intention: The Effects of
Persuasive Messages on Donation and Volunteerism. Doctor of Philosophy (Marketing), August
2013, 188 pp., 12 tables, 23 figures, references, 129 titles.
Nonprofit organizations are dependent on donations and volunteers to remain operational.
Most rely on persuasive communications to inform, educate, and convince recipients of their
messaging to respond in order to raise funds and generate volunteers. Though the marketing and
psychology literature has examined charitable giving and volunteerism, the effectiveness of
persuasive messages to affect philanthropy, gift-giving, and fundraising is a gap in the cause
marketing literature (Dann et al. 2007).
Because consumers rarely enter a situation without preexisting attitudes or beliefs, it is
expected that individuals exposed to an advertisement by a nonprofit organization will look for
ways to compare the messages within the ad to their own beliefs and attitudes. Two theories help
explain the processing that takes place in relation to attitudes, beliefs, and persuasive
communications – elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the theory of planned behavior
(TPB). The research presented here combines these theories to answer questions regarding
behavioral intention related to donating and volunteering when individuals are exposed to certain
persuasive messages from a nonprofit organization.
Results show that one’s involvement with the advertisement combines with one’s attitude
toward donating to help determine propensity to donate and the amount of the donation.
However, this is dependent upon the message in the ad. When messages indicate that others are
supportive of the cause, donations increase when one is more involved with the ad and is
generally agreeable to donating. But these messages have the opposite effect when one is not
involved with the ad – donations decrease when the message indicates others support the cause.
And when messages indicate that even a minimal donation is possible, the attitude driver has no
effect on donation behavior. However, when involvement is low, one’s age plays a role in
driving individuals toward action, with older people more driven to give when exposed to
supportive messages under low involvement conditions than younger groups.
For individuals who tend to rely on referents for their own actions, differing messages in
advertisements have little effect whether they are involved with the ad or not. That is, in most
cases, only their involvement with the ad seems to be the real indicator of behavior. That said,
the message that indicates that minimum giving is acceptable seems to affect donations, as
individuals more prone to seek referent input rely on this message to help direct behavior, but not
volunteerism. But, the cues were more readily adopted by those who were not highly involved.
This research contributes to the field of cause marketing in several ways. First, it exposed
involvement with the advertisement as the primary driver for behavioral intention in a nonprofit
context over one’s preexisting attitudes and beliefs. Second, it identified varying response
patterns that individuals have to specific advertising messages based on their level of
involvement and strength of those beliefs and attitudes. Third, it augmented the integrated ELM-
TPB theoretical model by demonstrating that attitude toward the ad can play a role in consumer
decision making. Fourth, it identified age as a factor in behavioral intention related to nonprofit
organizations in two specific instances: 1) when attitude and involvement combine for older
individuals exposed to normative messages, and 2) when subjective norms and involvement
combine for younger individuals exposed to messages that legitimize minimal effort. And fifth, it
uncovered implications for managers to develop strategic messages that can increase target
audience involvement and positively affect donations and volunteerism.
Copyright 2013
By
Eric Van Steenburg
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... vi

LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1
The Nonprofit Industry Today ............................................................................................ 2
Challenges of Conceptualization ........................................................................................ 3
Marketing of Nonprofit Organizations ............................................................................... 7
The Proposed Research ..................................................................................................... 10
Managerial and Academic Contributions ......................................................................... 12

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES ................................................... 13
Theory of Planned Behavior ............................................................................................. 13
Perceived Behavioral Control ............................................................................... 19
Attitude Toward the Behavior .............................................................................. 22
Subjective Norms .................................................................................................. 24
Theory of Planned Behavior in Marketing Research ........................................................ 28
Persuasive Communications ............................................................................................. 31
Attitude Toward the Advertisement...................................................................... 33
Social Legitimization of the Minimum ................................................................. 35
Elaboration Likelihood Model .............................................................................. 38
Planned Behavior and Integrated Theoretical Models ...................................................... 44
Attitudes and Behavior in Nonprofit Research ................................................................. 48

CHAPTER 3 METHODS AND MEASUREMENT .................................................................... 54
Manipulation Testing ........................................................................................................ 55
Development of Advertisements ....................................................................................... 58
Evaluating TPB Constructs ............................................................................................... 60
Dependent Measures ......................................................................................................... 64
Independent Measures and Covariates.............................................................................. 65
Data Collection and Analysis............................................................................................ 66

iii
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSIS................................................................................. 68
Pre-test 1 – Data Collection and Analysis ........................................................................ 68
Pre-test 2 – Advertisement Development ......................................................................... 70
Pre-test 2 – Data Collection and Analysis ........................................................................ 73
Final Data Collection and Analysis .................................................................................. 75
Results and Analysis – Study 1 ......................................................................................... 77
Hypotheses Testing – Study 1........................................................................................... 79
Exploratory Analysis – Study 1 ........................................................................................ 85
Exploratory Analysis – Mediated Moderation ...................................................... 86
Exploratory Analysis – Involvement .................................................................... 87
Exploratory Analysis – Age .................................................................................. 88
Exploratory Analysis – Attitude Toward the Ad .................................................. 90
Results and Analysis – Study 2 ......................................................................................... 92
Hypotheses Testing – Study 2........................................................................................... 95
Exploratory Analysis – Study 2 ...................................................................................... 102
Exploratory Analysis – Mediated Moderation .................................................... 102
Exploratory Analysis – Involvement .................................................................. 103
Exploratory Analysis – Age ................................................................................ 104
Exploratory Analysis – Attitude Toward the Ad ................................................ 105

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION ............................................................... 109
General Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 110
Contributions................................................................................................................... 112
Theoretical Implications ................................................................................................. 112
Managerial Implications – Target Audience Profiles ..................................................... 117
Managerial Implications – Strategy ................................................................................ 120
Managerial Implications – Tactics .................................................................................. 123
Limitations ...................................................................................................................... 124
Future Research .............................................................................................................. 129

APPENDIX A DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE ............................................................ 134

APPENDIX B ADS USED IN STUDY .................................................................................... 137

APPENDIX C SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ............................................................................. 148
iv
APPENDIX D AUDIENCE TYPES ......................................................................................... 161

REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 166

v
LIST OF TABLES
Page
TABLE 1 Independent-Samples t-Tests of Early and Late Respondents – Study 1 .................... 76
TABLE 2 Independent-Samples t-Tests of Early and Late Respondents – Study 2 .................... 77
TABLE 3 Regression results for TPB analysis – Study 1 ............................................................ 78
TABLE 4 Three-way Interaction Results – Study 1 ..................................................................... 80
TABLE 5 Interaction Results – Study 1 ....................................................................................... 82
TABLE 6 Results of Hypotheses Testing – Study 1..................................................................... 85
TABLE 7 Two-Stage Regression Results – Study 1 .................................................................... 91
TABLE 8 Regression results for TPB Analysis – Study 2 ........................................................... 93
TABLE 9 Three-way Interaction Results – Study 2 ..................................................................... 95
TABLE 10 Interaction Results – Study 2 ..................................................................................... 97
TABLE 11 Results of Hypotheses Testing – Study 2................................................................. 101
TABLE 12 Regression Results for Study 2 – Two-Stage ........................................................... 106

vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
FIGURE 1 Model of the Theory of Planned Behavior ................................................................ 15
FIGURE 2 Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion ............................................................. 40
FIGURE 3 An Integrated Theoretical Model of Preexisting Beliefs and Message Processing.... 47
FIGURE 4 Advertisement Showing a Victim in a Highly Emotive State .................................... 60
FIGURE 5 A Fictitious Nonprofit Organization was Created for the Advertisement .................. 71
FIGURE 6 All Ads Focused on an Individual in a Highly Emotive State ................................... 71
FIGURE 7 Advertisement with the Social Legitimization of the Minimum Message ................. 71
FIGURE 8 Advertisement with High Injunctive Norm Message ................................................. 72
FIGURE 9 Advertisement with Low Injunctive Norm Message .................................................. 72
FIGURE 10 Interaction of ATB and INV for High IN Message on Donation Intention ........... 83
ad
FIGURE 11 Interaction of ATB and INV for High IN Message on Donation Amount ............ 84
ad
FIGURE 12 Main Effect for ATB and INV for Low IN Message on Donation Intention ......... 84
ad
FIGURE 13 Main Effect for High INV Individuals................................................................... 88
ad
FIGURE 14 Interaction for AGE Individuals ........................................................................ 89
HIGH
FIGURE 15 Interaction of SN and INV for Message without SLM on Donation Intention ...... 98
ad
FIGURE 16 Main Effects of SN and INV for Message with SLM on Donation Intention ....... 99
ad
FIGURE 17 Interaction of PBC and INV for Message without SLM on Donation Intention ... 99
ad
FIGURE 18 Main Effects of PBC and INV for Message with SLM on Donation Intention ... 100
ad
FIGURE 19 Main Effect for High INV Individuals................................................................. 103
ad
FIGURE 20 Interaction for Low INV Individuals ................................................................... 103
ad
FIGURE 21 Interaction for AGE Individuals ....................................................................... 105
LOW
FIGURE 22 Anti-Smoking Campaign by TheTruth May Have the Type of Edginess Needed in
Nonprofit Advertising to Increase Involvement ......................................................................... 121
vii
FIGURE 23 United Way Advertisement with Text on a Blank Screen Featuring Social
Legitimization of the Minimum Messages ................................................................................. 122

viii