Research Insights : Factors influencing customers’ perceived advertising value and attitudes towards fast food native advertisements

Jamil Schembri completed a Master Degree in Management & Digital Marketing at the Faculty of Economics, Management & Acoountancy, University of Malta.

Have you ever wondered why you encounter so many advertisements while scrolling through  social networking sites like Facebook, and what makes an advertisement grab your attention  over another?

As the user base of social networking sites exploded and online advertisements  became a cost-effective alternative to traditional advertisements to promote products and  services, more organisations throughout the years started to advertise heavily on the Internet,  more specifically social networking sites.

This quantitative research, named Factors Influencing Customers’ Perceived Advertising Value  and Attitudes Towards Fast-Food Native Advertisements, focuses on identifying the factors  that influence the customers’ perceived advertising value of fast-food native advertisements,  consequently influencing their attitude toward such advertisements. Moreover, this research  revolves around native advertisements, a relatively new form of advertising, and, more  specifically, focuses on the fast-food industry. The fast-food industry has encountered and  continues to face intense competition, and for organisations to stand out and differentiate  from their competitors, advertisements are one of the tools they can employ to do just that.

Nonetheless, what are native advertisements? Most people are exposed to numerous native  advertisements daily while scrolling through social media; however, some or the majority are  still unaware that these advertisements are called ‘native’. Native advertising represents those  advertisements that seamlessly blend with the content of the platform they are published on,  potentially minimising interference, intrusiveness, and disruption.

This research used the six primary factors identified in a previous systematic study in this field:  Informativeness, Personalisation, Interactivity, Credibility, Entertainment, and Irritation. This  study analysed data gathered from 487 participants through a questionnaire distributed on  social networking sites to address the two main research questions set at the beginning of this  research.

Through a comprehensive data analysis, several findings emerged which can be fruitful to  organisations in the fast-food industry. Before delving into these findings, it is essential to  acknowledge that the primary limitation of this study was the use of non-probability sampling.  Consequently, the conclusions drawn might not be representative of the entire population of  interest but represent only the participants in this study. 

The findings revealed that having fast-food native advertisements on social networking sites  that are informative, personalised, interactive, credible, entertaining, and non-irritating will  increase the advertising value obtained by the customer. Indeed, it is noteworthy that, in  general, participants opined that existing fast-food native advertisements on social  networking sites are irritating and lack information, personalisation, interactivity, credibility,  and entertainment. 

Furthermore, this study also identified that the higher the advertising value obtained, the  more positive the customer’s attitude towards these advertisements. As a result, there is a  link between the factors, perceived advertising value, and customer attitudes. In other words,  when the factors that positively influence advertising value increase, the advertising value  increases, leading to a more positive customer attitude.

These findings present valuable insights for fast-food organisations when creating native  advertisements on social networking sites. Nowadays, people encounter a substantial volume  of advertisements on a daily basis, making it impossible to concentrate on each  advertisement. Consequently, organisations should identify how they can make their  advertisements stand out among their competitors, and this study lays a strong foundation  for it. It highlights how the optimal scenario for delivering a higher value to the customers and  positively influencing their attitudes towards that advertisement is to conduct more  informative, personalised, interactive, credible, entertaining, and less irritating fast-food  native advertisements.

Lastly, fast-food organisations should also note that apart from these six factors, other factors  should be considered as well, including incentives and value corruption, among others.

This article is a summary of the student’s dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of a Master of Science degree in Strategic Management & Digital Marketing. The article is not officially endorsed by the University of Malta.The opinions expressed therein are solely those of the respective alumni and do not reflect those of the University of Malta.