Humour Advertising On Consumer Recall On Fast Moving Consumer Goods In Pakistan

In a report dated March 17 2018, South Asia Investor Review proclaimed that Pakistan is the fastest growing retail market in the world. Especially emboldened by the growing middle class, this $152 billion industry is catalysing several other service industries, including advertising. Advertising holds significant importance in Pakistani television today, at the end of 2010 around $350 million was spent in advertising in Pakistan (Siddiqui and Siddiqui, 2016).

In this industry, innovation is key, especially with the teeming competition. Humor as a form of advertising technique has been studied by various academics over the years. Fugate (1998) studied the effects of humor on the liking of the particular product by the viewer and the credibility it lent to the viewer. Pelsmacker and Guenes (1999) investigated into the different levels of humour that went into the making of advertisements and the element of warmth that went along with it.

Recall is a cognitive factor of advertisement, studying which allows for the researcher to see how much certain forms of advertising makes people think of it again and again (El-tazi and Dinana, 2018).

1.1 The Function of Humor

Humor is has long been the object of curiosity by psychologists. Humor has been understood as a vehicle to communicate meaningful messages and to make the recipient feel comfortable and take part in a shared experience (Foot, 1997). Hence, there is little mystery as to why advertising will not try to take advantage of humorous means of communication. But the usage of humor is a recent phenomenon, emerging with the growth of television. Hopkins (1923) argued that humor is ineffective in selling products as, “people do not buy from clowns”. Of course, that viewpoint had an expiry date, Beard (2008) estimated that 30% of the total advertisements in television use humor. Koneska et al (2017) however, warn about the usage of humor in advertising, as sometimes it could take the attention of the consumer away from the product and instead distract them towards something they find problematic in the ad. Krishnan and Chakravari (2003) also argue that humor could take the attention away from the product and distract viewers. But for the most part, humour is found to have a positive effect on brand image and recall (Chung and Zao, 2003). Humour has been found to be an effective method of persuasion, which use mental shortcuts which are simple to be understood and thus memorable (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986).

1.2 Humor and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods

Strick et al (2013), working on low-involvement consumer goods like soft drinks and pencils, which can also be classified as fast-moving consumer goods, have discovered linkages between their movement and humor used in advertising. They propose a two-step process, whereby humor first affects cognitively and prevents negative brand associations from forming and second, it affectively creates a positive image of the product using humor.

Usage of Humor in Advertising: The Case of Pakistan

In spite of the setback suffered by the economy in the lockdowns caused by COVID, Pakistan’s FMCG industry remains afloat. The Express Tribune (June 15, 2020) reported that demand for staples and household items like cleaning products shot up significantly, owing to which there could be permanent demand for products which consumers hadn’t used before. The bleakness of the situations calls even more for advertising which will contribute productively towards creating a positive brand image. This is where humor-based advertising strategy in Pakistan comes into play.

The market behaviour of consumer remains fairly predictable when it comes to buying decisions. Hussain et al’s (2008) research on Pakistani consumers reveals that humorous ads were more capable of retaining public attention than serious ads. Alternatively, humor in advertising could cause distractions like outrage at the content, marking the product negatively as well. Förster and Brantner (2016) examine Austrian viewers and find that the most offensive form of advertisement for them are ads which have elements of sexism and child endangerment. In the Pakistani case, the opposite could be held true as well, as showed by the recent outrage over a detergent ad, where the theme of female empowerment was interpreted as an attack on the traditional values of Islam by some (The New Indian Express, 25th June 2019). However, a more appropriate example would be the pulling of a contraceptive ad in Pakistan which used humorous undertones to put its message across (Al Jazeera, 4th September, 2014). The ad caused outrage over its suggestive message, while others raised concern over the blatant disregard for broadcast media being used to spread awareness about contraception (Ibid).

2.1 The Gender Divide in Pakistani Advertising

The examples given above raises the question of gender divide and the accepted “appropriateness” of representation of women in Pakistan media. Given that the male-female ration in Pakistan is almost equal, women in contemporary Pakistan are emerging as important decision makers and consumers (Ali et al, 2012). Mwangi (1996) discovers that while most ad voiceovers are given by men, household item voiceovers are given by women. It is clear that household items which move rapidly from the shelves are advertised keeping women in mind. Ali et al (2012), analysing television ads in Pakistani media discover that women are the central character in food ads. In ads for non-edible items, there was a greater degree of gender discrimination. However, the bias remains if one looks at the findings holistically; the role of both genders are similar, whether its a food or non-food ad. Hence, an ad about salt may have a woman buying the brand, and a car ad may have a man buying the car. The difference of gender in the centrality of the characters in the ad may signify equitability, but gender roles remain intact.

This contrasts the findings of Childs and Maher (2003) who discover that male-centred ads were prevalent in both food and non-food sectors. Additionally, male-centred ads were found to be more aggressive in terms of sounds and activity. Female-centred advertisements are generally quieter and more subdued than male-centred advertisements (Ali et al, 2012). Latif et al (2012) discover that advertisement content which portrays gender identity in a certain way may negatively affect a certain group more than it will positively affect another group. The negative effect of the advertisement may surpass the positive effect that was envisaged in the first place. Hence, ads are required to pretest before they air en masse.

2.2 Humor and Brand Recall

The objective of any kind of advertisement is to make the brand memorable for the consumers, so when it is time to buy, they pick their brand. Hansen et al (2009), experimenting on a sample group, found that recall for advertisements was higher for humorous ads than for control ads. However, humor is only a mechanism, the real objective is to present the product. The real usage of humor is a strategy to create more brand awareness. Johnson et al (2010), discover that an already existing positive association with the brand helped people move past the cognitive connotations and purchase the brand. Recognition of the brand is one of the key factors motivating the usage of humor in advertisement. Chang and Chang (2014) discover that humor significantly affects brand recognition, as individuals are more likely to remember and recall humor-oriented products. The recall for humor-oriented ads is higher than emotional advertisements and also reports higher level of brand awareness. However, sometimes, humor usage has a pitfall. Hansen et al (2009) additionally discover that while advertisement recall is higher in humorous ads, brand recall is higher in control ads. Thus, while consumers may enjoy the ad, their enjoyment will lead them to remember the product that is the advertisement more than the product that the ad is selling. El-tazy and Dinana’s (2018) research also points this way; they discover that if brand name is mentioned frequently in the humorous ad, it may lead to more brand recall than ad recall. However, the adult sample size of their group was more adept at remembering the old ads as opposed to the brands. This was not the case with the children’s group.

This poses as a significant problem as consumer goods which move fast, like household food items, cleaning products and so on, are usually purchased by adults and brand decisions are also made by them. If brand recall is low in adults, then Pakistani consumers will not be influenced by this particular strategy while making a decision to buy a particular brand. Hence, according to El-tazy and Dinana (2018), knowledge of the target group (in case of their research, their age group) forms an essential part of deciding what kind of humor should be used in the ad. As seen earlier, the humor used in the contraceptive ad which was aired in Pakistan had to be pulled out from broadcasting as it cause outrage. Hence, wrong kind of humor may not only result in indifference to the product, it may in turn cause a reverse effect by creating a negative image of the product.

2.3 Recall and Humor in the Pakistani Context

A significant chunk of literature about influence factors in buying trends in Pakistan comprises of fast-moving consumer goods. This is because the volume of goods moved is the most in this sector and studying trends would be easier. Subhani et al (2009), in researching the buying patterns of milk in Pakistani households, notes that people associate with brands that are easily recognised and understandable. The path to retain loyalty is to attain a kind of relationship with the consumer whereby the mere thought of that product, makes them think of the particular brand (Srinivasan et al, 2005). Overall, brand recall is an important aspect of brand equity, which is built on a foundation of positive recall by consumers.

Studying the packaged milk industry in Pakistan, Subhani et al (2009), discovered that for products like milk, brand recognition doesn’t matter as people are more interested in the product and indifferent to the brand. Alternatively, Mehmood and Masood (2016) find that in the telecom industry, humour has a significant effect on the image perception of the product and can contribute fruitfully to the desire of the consumer to buy that product. As we can observe from the figure given above, image/brand perception is a key element in creating brand awareness and a sustained process can lead to unshakable brand loyalty. It is also to be noted that perception can lead to recall by the consumer as well; when they do not visually have the product in front of them, even then they will recall that product and seek it out.

Although the findings of Mehmood and Masood (2016) was not completely in context of FMCG products, it is important to note that it holds true for products and services where people make choices to buy a particular item not only based on its features but also its image. Hence, it may be relevant to understand brand recall in the FMCG sector as well.

Conclusively, a review of literature has revealed that while it is not a given in every FMCG product, humor in advertising leads to greater brand recall and sub sequentially, sales.

References

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• Hargie, O. ed., 1997. The handbook of communication skills. Psychology Press.
• Koneska, L., Teofilovska, J. and Dimitrieska, S., 2017. Humor in Advertising. European Journal of Economics and Business Studies, 3(2), pp.116-123.
• https://tribune.com.pk/story/2242636/fmcg-sector-amid-covid-19-crisis
• https://www.newindianexpress.com/world/2019/jun/25/pakistani-outrage-bubbles-as-detergent-ad-promotes-womens-rights-1995095.html
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