Title: Consumers’ perception of Traditional vs. Non-traditional Advertising in Bulgaria.A case of Kaufland BulgariaLevel: Master Thesis in International MarketingAuthors: Simeon Kovachki and Ventsislav MarinovTutor: Sarah WiknerDate: 21st of May, 2018Keywords: Advertising, Marketing, Traditional Advertising, Non-Traditional Advertising, Communication Process, Decision-Making Process, PerceptionsBackground: There are different ways to promote a brand, products or services. The researchers attempted to understand the traditional and non-traditional messages of different types of advertisements. The focus of this research is on print advertising, billboards, TV commercials and online advertisement.The purpose of this study is to better understand the perceptions that the Bulgarian customers have towards the advertising messages that are sent on traditional and non-traditional channels by one of the hypermarkets in Bulgaria.Method: In order to answer the research questions and fulfill the purpose the researchers conducted qualitative and quantitative research. The primary data was collected by carrying out a semi-structured interview with one of the Kauflands’ managers in Bulgaria and an online survey that was distributed through one of the social media channels. The secondary data was collected by using online sources such as websites that are considered trustworthy and also companies annual reports which have been reviewed in order to better understand the position of Kaufland on the Bulgarian market.Conclusion: The authors found that both traditional and non-traditional advertising plays a major role. However, traditional advertising is still a big convincer towards a purchase. The merge between traditional and non-traditional advertising elevates classic advertising into the “new classic advertising”. The perception towards both ways of advertising is relatively positive, where brochures are the most preferred way when talking about hypermarkets.

In the recent year’s internet have grown rapidly, and the digital world have grown along with it. This have led to new marketing methods such as social media marketing has developed which have shown to be good tool for building relationship with consumers and increase brand awareness. In the same time traditional advertising, which is a good tool for creating brand awareness, is losing its effectiveness for it. The purpose with this study is therefore to examine why companies continue using traditional advertising for brand awareness when the digital world is growing, and more people spend their time on internet and social media. This study was an exploratory with a qualitative and deductive approach. Expert interviews were chosen as research strategy and the candidates that was interviewed had a marketing manager position or similar that was from different branches and hade much knowledge about the topic. The findings in this study gave some interesting insights and new knowledge regarding social media marketing and traditional advertising. Like one of the big advantages with social media marketing have shown not be true anymore. In this study’s findings it is shown that traditional advertising can still be an effective marketing method to use if companies want to reach the older generation. But the findings also show that it is maybe more important to have advertising that is of high quality in order to not annoy consumers instead of finding the best marketing channel. This study’s theoretical contribution is more knowledge on the advantages and disadvantages between social media marketing and traditional advertising. The study also contribute how companies can work with the challenge of decreasing consumers annoyance of advertising. Another theoretical contribution is the knowledge that advertising annoyance is happening both in traditional advertising and social media marketing and that it is not only important to know the best marketing channel. The practical contribution that this study have is the knowledge to companies that are struggling with the decision to start using social media marketing or not. This study also give knowledge on why social media marketing is good and how companies can use social media marketing to establish brand awareness.

Advertising is a major part of the communication between companies and consumers. It is supposed to create awareness and attention toward the aimed target group. For an advertisement to get the right response it is important for companies to create and uphold a relationship with their consumers. Recent research acknowledges that different advertising strategies can create different responses. Continuously, different generational cohorts have different values, perspectives and backgrounds, and therefore their perception can differ as well. It can hence be important to explore how consumers perceive different advertising strategies and if there is a difference in perception according to generational cohorts. This study intends to examine how traditional and ambient advertising in Sweden is perceived by Swedish consumers within Generation X and Generation Y. Furthermore if there is a difference between these two generational cohorts’ perception. From this the authors want to find out if it is appropriate to create the same advertisements for both generations in Sweden, or if the different generational cohorts demand different advertising strategies. For this study, a conceptual model was based on the process of perception, through which the generational cohorts and advertising concepts were examined. The authors additionally researched advertising properties, and their effect on consumers’ perceptions toward advertising. This research was conducted as a mix of multiple-case study and cross-sectional design. It further used a qualitative approach, using semi-structured focus groups to retrieve a deeper understanding of consumer perception and the underlying reasons behind such behavior. The conclusion that can be inferred from this thesis is that Generation Y perceives ambient advertising as better than Generation X, since they are more open to interaction with marketing events. Generation X instead perceives traditional and ambient advertising as equally powerful. Yet, the differences between the two cohorts are small, and according to some advertising properties, minimal.

This thesis argues that the FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding) grid can not only be used by advertising students to write strategy, but also to write superior strategies. To demonstrate this, the research in this study identifies two versions of the FCB grid that can serve as guidelines for students when writing advertising strategy. The argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of strategies written according to the FCB grid and the Bendinger formula. A discussion of the areas which were researched and led to the introduction of the FCB grid, as well as an explanation of the FCB grid, provide the context in which the grid should be viewed as a guideline for writing advertising strategy. Thereafter, a summative overview of what advertising strategy and the Bendinger formula encompass, identifies the complexed nature of advertising strategy, as well as the minimum areas which need to be addressed when attempting to write strategy. A detailed discussion of the method which was employed and the instrument developed to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, precedes the experimental results. A critical discussion of the results obtained from the statistical analysis and the literature on advertising strategy provide a theoretical foundation on which a model, to be used in conjunction with the FCB grid to write strategy, is designed. The model is then explained to illustrate how students can, in conjunction with the FCB grid, apply it to write advertising strategy. This thesis recommends that, in order to improve on the suggested method of evaluating strategies, the measurement scale developed in this study could be considered as a starting point. A further recommendation is that the experiment comparing strategies written according to the FCB sextant grid to those written according to the FCB quadrant grid, could provide the need for further research. The thesis concludes that as far as could be determined, this was the first time that a study of this nature was undertaken and that the need for future research to validate this study and its results, exists. / Communication Science / D. Litt et Phil. (Communication)

This thesis argues that the FCB (Foote, Cone and Belding) grid can not only be used by advertising students to write strategy, but also to write superior strategies. To demonstrate this, the research in this study identifies two versions of the FCB grid that can serve as guidelines for students when writing advertising strategy. The argument is substantiated by the results of a statistical analysis of strategies written according to the FCB grid and the Bendinger formula. A discussion of the areas which were researched and led to the introduction of the FCB grid, as well as an explanation of the FCB grid, provide the context in which the grid should be viewed as a guideline for writing advertising strategy. Thereafter, a summative overview of what advertising strategy and the Bendinger formula encompass, identifies the complexed nature of advertising strategy, as well as the minimum areas which need to be addressed when attempting to write strategy. A detailed discussion of the method which was employed and the instrument developed to evaluate the effectiveness of strategies, precedes the experimental results. A critical discussion of the results obtained from the statistical analysis and the literature on advertising strategy provide a theoretical foundation on which a model, to be used in conjunction with the FCB grid to write strategy, is designed. The model is then explained to illustrate how students can, in conjunction with the FCB grid, apply it to write advertising strategy. This thesis recommends that, in order to improve on the suggested method of evaluating strategies, the measurement scale developed in this study could be considered as a starting point. A further recommendation is that the experiment comparing strategies written according to the FCB sextant grid to those written according to the FCB quadrant grid, could provide the need for further research. The thesis concludes that as far as could be determined, this was the first time that a study of this nature was undertaken and that the need for future research to validate this study and its results, exists. / Communication Science / D. Litt et Phil. (Communication)