Bachelor Thesis
HALMSTAD
Bachelor's Programme in International Marketing, 180 credits
The perceptual game
A study of individuals' perception within the gambling sector
Independent paper within Corporate economy, 15 credits
Halmstad 2021-05-25
Johnny Strandberg, Simon Näslund
Acknowledgements
First and foremost, we would like to give our deepest gratitude to everyone who has helped us throughout the process of writing this bachelor thesis. It has truly been a fun, but challenging, process.
Secondly, we would like to say thanks to our supervisor Ulf Aagerup, who with his inspiring insights on marketing and consumer behaviour sparked our initial interest to study the topic.
He also gave us valuable aspects on our subject and contributed with vast knowledge during the course of the thesis. A special thanks also goes out to all the respondents that took part in the experimental study, which made this entire bachelor thesis possible.
Halmstad University 2021 Halmstad 2021-05-25
Summary
Title: The perceptual game
Subject: Bachelor thesis in Business Administration, 15 credits Authors: Johnny Strandberg & Simon Näslund
Supervisor: Ulf Aagerup Examiner: Svante Andersson
Research questions: How does legislation influence individuals' perception towards gambling advertisement?
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the individuals’ perception towards content messages in the gambling industry with regards to new legislations in Sweden. The authors tests the relationship between the individuals’ intent to gamble and perception towards gambling advertisements in regards to newly implemented gambling advertising legislations Method: In order to achieve the purpose of this study, a quantitative research methodology was chosen with a deductive approach. The collection of quantitative data and information in this study was gathered from an experimental study made by the authors, earlier studies, the law and scientific articles that were relevant within the framework. To ensure the quality of the experiment a pilot study was conducted where the participants were asked to analyze the questions and design of the survey.
Conclusion: The results of this study show a definitive aspect that is contributing to an
individual’s perceptual change due to new gambling marketing legislations, more particularly:
change in content. Underlying aspects affecting perceptual change was found, namely:
gender, interest, and experience. Due to what the findings in this study indicate, a correlation can be seen - that stricter legislations, limiting marketers to promote unfashionable marketing, leads to a perceptual change.
Keywords: Gambling, Perception, Legislation, Consumer behaviour,
1- Introduction 5
1.1 Background 5
1.2 Problem 6
1.3 Purpose 6
1.4 Definitions 7
1.5 Delimitations 7
2- Frame of reference 8
2.1 Advertising 8
2.2 Gambling advertising 8
2.2.1 Landscape vs Online Casinos 8
2.2.2 Gambling advertising in Sweden 9
2.2.3 Gambling legislation in Sweden 9
2.3 Perception 11
2.3.1 Sensation 12
2.3.2 Attention 13
2.3.3 Interpretation 15
2.4 Rational or emotional claims 16
2.5 Elaboration Likelihood Model 16
2.5.1 The central route to persuasion 17
2.5.2 The peripheral route to persuasion 17
2.6 Perception toward gambling and its advertising 17
3- METHOD 19
3.1 Research Purpose 19
3.2 Research approach: Quantitative research 19
3.3 Research strategy 20
3.4 Data collection 21
3.4.1 Primary data 21
3.2.2 Choosing research design 22
3.4.3 Manipulated factors: Independent & dependent variable 23
3.4.4 Creating survey questions & Likert-scale 23
3.4.5 Manipulation check 24
3.4.6 Literature review 24
3.5 Validity and reliability 25
Pilot Study 25
3.6 Ethics 25
3.7 Data analysis 26
3.8 Statistical tests 26
4. Empirical data 28
4.1 Outcome pilot study 28
4.2 Result experimental survey 28
4.2.1 Result manipulation check 28
4.3 Main effect: Results respondents’ intention to gamble before & after stricter
legislations 29
4.4 Interaction effects: Testing the moderators 30
4.4.1 Moderation effect of experience 31
4.4.2 Moderation effect of interest 31
4.4.3 Moderation effect of gender 32
4.4.4 Gender affect on attention towards gambling marketing. 32
5. Analysis 34
5.1 Gambling today and its consumer 34
5.2 Main effect: the impact of stricter legislations on respondents perception 34
5.3 Interaction effect: Gambling interest and marketing 37
5.4 Interaction effect: Gambling experience and marketing 38
5.5 Interaction effect: Gender and gambling marketing 39
6. Conclusion 41
6.1 Implications 41
6.1.1 Theoretical 41
6.1.2 Practical 42
6.2 Limitations 43
6.4 Further research 43
References 44
Appendix 1 - Survey question 53
Appendix 2 - Operationalization scheme 60
Appendix 3 - Manipulation check 61
1- Introduction
The first chapter of this study provides a general introduction to the research topic. The background and problem are discussed, to create an understanding for the relevancy of the study. It is followed by the purpose and the research question that aims to be explored throughout the research. Key terms are defined to clarify common recurring terms. Lastly, delimitations of this study are presented, to clarify on which sector this study focuses on.
1.1 Background
The dawn of mankind marks the starting point from when humans became gamblers. Adam and Eve, the first gamblers, were the first ones to gamble when they decided to eat the
forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge - knowingly risking their life and therefore the fate of mankind by doing so (Thompson, 2001).
Ever since Adam and Eve allegedly ate the forbidden fruit, much has changed in how we humans look at gambling. In short, gambling is today looked at to wager money, or prized goods, on a specific event with an uncertain outcome. The primary intent of gambling is either winning more money than wagered or prized goods (Rose & Loeb, 1998).
In the terms of being able to gamble and play games such as poker, much has changed in the last 30 years. Up until 1995 gambling was only, officially, found in stationary casinos around the globe. All changed when Interactive Casino, Inc (ICI), was first out to open their doors to the service of online casinos with 18 different casino games (Janower, 1996).
Since Interactive Casino Inc first opened their door, online gambling has grown at a
tremendous rate in terms of popularity, market share and products offered. In 2013, the online gambling market was valued at €6.1 billion, seven years later, in 2020, the market value is estimated at $66.7 billion which is a growth rate of 90,85% in 7 years (Gainsbury, 2015).
Over the past year 2019-2020, the growth is mainly attributed to COVID 19, due to which populations are confined to home during the lockdown and have free time to participate in several free and paid leisure activities including online gambling. The gambling market is then expected to reach $92.9 billion by 2023 (Research and Markets, 2020).
Today, almost 10% who gamble on poker, casino games, bingo and/or on gambling machines are problem gamblers. In the study from folkhälsomyndigheten they concluded that what gambling form and the gambling frequency affects and influences the risk of developing gambling problems (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2014). Roughly 165 000 people across Sweden share a household with someone who has gambling problems, whereof 68 000 of these people are children (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020).
This had led to the Swedish state, together with the Swedish authority Spelinspektionen, implementing an active strategy called Spelpaus. Spelpaus is a self-avoidance register where you can suspend yourself from all enlisted gambling companies that are licensed to conduct games for money in Sweden.As well as Spelpaus, the Swedish parliament drafted new legislation in relation to current gambling laws (Spelinspektionen, 2020).
At the same time as Spelpaus launched the new legislation also took effect. This new
legislation was drafted to prevent companies abusing their ability to market themselves in an unfashionable way in the gambling market and help inhabitants who see themselves having gambling problems. This law also demands that all casinos that wish to operate on the Swedish market to have an official license to do so (Spellag [SFS], 2018).
1.2 Problem
Earlier studies surrounding gambling and its message content have focused on the questions, international cultures, legislations effect on message content from companies, brand
avoidance and frequency & content messages of casino-related advertisements. It is in regard to these earlier studies we have come up with our contribution to the field.
Eyebrows are being raised as problem gambling continues to increase in numbers
(Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020), whilst research continues to show that the most common messages in gambling advertisements are centered on gambling as a path to a certain winning way of life or virtual socialization (McMullan & Kervin, 2012; Håkansson & Widinghoff, 2019). Research done regarding consumer behavior is clear. Consumers interpret certain types of information and this will lead to consumers either changing attitude or behavior towards the presented information (Solomon et al., 2013).
One behavior that has continued stayed that same is the behavior of problem gamblers, with their perception continuing to remain the same. Problem gamblers have been shown to hold both a more optimistic overall perception of the risk in gambling. They also appear to retain the motivation to gamble, despite plenty of negative expectations and experiences, via cognitive processes which resulted in preferential emphasis on positive over negative outcomes (Spurrier & Blaszczynski, 2013).
The authors found that, to the best of their knowledge, no research explores individuals' perception towards the gambling advertising with regards to the new Swedish legislation in the online casino industry, presenting a research gap.
It is increasingly important for marketing professionals within the field of gambling to understand Swedish individuals' perception, due to the new stricter gambling legislation in Sweden. The focus lies on if and how the Swedish individuals perception towards gambling has changed, due to this legislation.
1.3 Purpose
The purpose of this research study is to explore the individuals perception towards content messages in the gambling industry with regards to new legislations in Sweden.
This purpose will be fulfilled by the implementation of the following research question:
RQ: “How does legislation influence individuals perception towards gambling advertisement?”
1.4 Definitions
• Advertising: “Brand-initiated communication intent on impacting people” (Dahlen &
Rosengren, 2016, p. 334)
• Gambling: Refers to risk-taking activities in terms of financial transactions, the staking of money or an item of economic value on the uncertain outcome of a future event (McMillen, 2014)
• Online Casino: Online casinos offer online gambling services, which involves wagering a stake with monetary value in games of chance that are provided at a distance, by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services (European Commission, 2012).
• Perception: Perception is the process by which people select, organize, and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world (Kotler et al., 2013, p. 157).
• Legislation: Legislation is defined as ‘‘a law, or set of laws, suggested by a government and made official by a parliament.’’ (Cambridge dictionary, 2020).
• Consumer behavior: Consumer behavior is the social and psychological processes people undergo in purchasing, handling, and removal of a specific good. Consumer behavior is studied from different standpoints, both from a marketer’s view and from the behavioral and social science view (Bagozzi et al., 2002).
1.5 Delimitations
This study delimits itself to the Swedish individuals perception of online gambling companies and their marketing. Therefore, this study will not take in the aspects of landscape gambling, for example Casino Cosmopol.
2 Frame of reference
In this chapter, the academic literature that serves as a foundation to this research is presented. The literature covers relevant topics in relation to the purpose of this study.
Throughout the chapter the proposal of null-hypothesis is formed based on the academic findings that is presented in this chapter.
2.1 Advertising
Advertising involves the promotion of products, organizations and/or services, and aims to raise the interest in what is being advertised (Heath, 2013). Advertising is the appeal in which the advertiser contacts the consumer through media, press, posters, or any means suitable (Caton, 2013).
Dahlen and Rosengren (2016) proposed an updated definition of advertising. By identifying three dynamics, the constant addition of new media and formats, the evolution of new
“consumer” behaviors related to advertising, and a growing acknowledgment of the extended effect of advertising. Based on these dynamics, and a survey involving a handful of
advertising academics and professionals, the new proposed definition was “brand-initiated communication intent on impacting people”.
The usage of media and purchasing behavior of consumers has changed over the past years, due to the rapid development of Information Technology, also known as IT (Cho, 2016).
According to Field et al. (2011) “Online advertisement is one most important advertising media in terms of its growth and future potential”. Hussain and Lasage (2014) points out that Online media advertising represents around 20% of the total advertising spending worldwide.
2.2 Gambling advertising
Gambling as a term, has its footing as a widespread form of human entertainment. Gambling has over the years given several insights for researchers regarding rational and emotional human decision-making. As it creates a behaviour that can become harmful, and potentially addictive, for individuals (Clark, 2010).
According to Clemens et al. (2016) there has been limited research on what effects gambling advertising has on behavior and attitudes. Though it has been shown that with the ability of internet advertising, online casinos have several ways to strategically target, retain and attract customers (Hing et al., 2014).
2.2.1 Landscape vs Online Casinos
Online gambling differs from land-scaped gambling mostly in terms of its 24/7 service, simplicity, and its anonymity which is facilitated by the interactive and immersive Internet environment. The use of digital forms of money appears to lead to increased gambling and losses, particularly for problem gamblers. It brings the feeling that losing is not dangerous since ‘real’ money is not spended (McCormack & Griffiths, 2012).
Convenience and availability are two reasons why online gambling has become very popular in a short time. Online gambling has the advantage of saving the player time since the
gambler does not have to travel, there are no restricted opening hours and users can gamble from their home. The unnecessary time consumption, such as traveling to the landscape gambling area has been an obstacle for the gamble participation that now has been eliminated (Kim et al., 2017).
An alternative explanation why online gambling has become so popular has to do with the large scale of available options, a variety of games. Unlike the traditional landscape gambling environment, online gambling websites are not constrained by the size of a building. The online gambling sites offer games, ranging from a few dozen variants of games to a few thousand, this brings the variety to the table which impacts the gambler to continue playing.
While if you visit a landscaped casino, the choices are much smaller which can bring that players do not feel the same level of satisfaction and delight (Warrington Worldwide, 2020).
2.2.2 Gambling advertising in Sweden
In early 2019 Håkansson and Windinghoff (2019) decided to study and record Swedish gambling advertisements that were live on television, with the goal to analyze the
frequency, extent, and content of the advertisement. In their study six different television channels were examined over the course of 144 hours. The results showed that out of all types of advertising that was gambling-related, online casino advertising was most frequent.
It was shown that there were 13 different components that often were presented in the advertisements used to promote online casinos in Sweden (see table 1).
Table 1: Components about gambling advertising
2.2.3 Gambling legislation in Sweden
Research suggests that there is a relationship, even though complex, between the gambling availability and increasingly gambling related problems (Sévigny, 2008). An increment in gambling and losses can be seen together with the rise of online gambling. Where the usage of
digital forms of money (e.g., credit cards, electronic bank transfers and e-wallets), plays a major part of this, as people feel that they are not spending ‘real’ money (Gainsbury, 2015) . As online gambling seemingly has come to stay, Folkhälsomyndigheten shows that almost 10% who gamble on poker, casino games, bingo and/or on gambling machines are problem gamblers (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2014). At the moment in Sweden roughly 340 000 of their inhabitants have some sort of gambling addiction, which is a percentage of nearly 3.5%. This statistic concludes that roughly 165 000 people across Sweden share a household with
someone who has gambling problems, whereof 68 000 of these people are children. In the Swedish longitudinal gambling study (Swelogs), conducted by Folkhälsomyndigheten, results showed that people between 18-44 years old are the ones who are most inclined to develop a gambling problem (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020).
This had led to the Swedish state, together with the Swedish authority Spelinspektionen, implementing an active strategy called Spelpaus. As well as Spelpaus, the Swedish parliament drafted new legislation in relation to current gambling laws (Spelinspektionen, 2020).
The idea behind Spelpaus is that it gives the gambler the possibility of suspending and cutting themselves off from all direct marketing from gambling companies, as well as disabling the ability for users to gamble from the gambling companies who have a license to operate gambling in Sweden. The suspension time can range from 1, 3, 6 months or until further notice, and it applies to all sorts of gambling; from online, landscape to different slot
machines (Spelinspektionen, 2020). From the launching of Spelpaus in January 2019 nearly 60 000 people have suspended themselves from gambling sites, with roughly 75% of the suspended being males (Spelinspektionen, 2020).
At the same time as Spelpaus launched the new legislation also took effect. This new
legislation was drafted to prevent companies abusing their ability to market themselves in an unfashionable way in the gambling market and help inhabitants who see themselves having gambling problems. This law also demands that all casinos that wish to operate on the Swedish market to have an official license to do so (Spellag [SFS], 2019; Konsumentverket, 2020).
According to the regulations, advertisements are not allowed to exaggerate the possibility of victory or neither allowed to suggest that anything other than the chance can affect the
outcome of a drawing or a lucky-game (Spellag [SFS], 2019). The advertisements are also not allowed to be intrusive. In early 2019, the Swedish patent and market court ruled in favour of Sweden's Consumer Ombudsman and against Ninja casino. It was decided that the usage of full-screen pop-up ads exceeded the legal requirements for “toleration” in gambling marketing (Konsumentombudsmannen v. Elec Games Limited, 2019).
The advertisement is referred to as a “pop-up ads” also called an “takeover-ad” where the Ombudsman determined it to be “intrusive”. Ninja Casinos (Elec Games) marketing is contrary to good marketing practice according to section 5 of the Marketing Act and is improper according to section 6 of the Marketing Act (Konsumentombudsmannen v. Elec Games Limited, 2019). “Takeover” ads, much like its name suggests, takes over and covers the entire screen when a consumer visits a particular website. The consumer has thus not
searched for, or requested, the advertisement and it typically also has no connection with the website requested by the consumer. The consumer needs to click on a link to proceed to the website (Janoschka, 2004).
The Patent and Market Court determine that the “takeover” ads conflict against the
requirement of moderation and, in the alternative, contradicts the requirement of moderation in an overall assessment where e.g. the design of the text, adjacent images and the presence of links are taken into account (Konsumentombudsmannen v. Elec Games Limited, 2019).
The Ombudsman justified that the ad´s content was encouraging excessive gamling. The ad´s were focused on easy ways for depositing and withdrawing funds and the prospect of winning large jackpots (Igamingbusiness, 2019).
According to what is drafted in Spellagen (the gambling law in Sweden) all gambling companies need to have some sort of duty of care for its players, this to prevent exaggerated gambling. This is done by, with the duty of care, being able to identify and intervene when an individual shows signs on gambling problems. If the gambling companies do not follow the guidelines or their conduct does not follow spellagen, will undeniably end up in the
companies losing their license to supply any sort of gambling related content. All gambling related content which is presented without a license is looked upon as a crime, which can lead to a fine or up to two years in prison (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020).
Due to the increment of gamblers and that gambling strategies with encouraging promotions were found to be the most influential in getting individuals to gamble (Nyemcsok et al., 2018). The Swedish government has given the department of gambling-investigation (spelmarknadsutredningen) the mission of submitting a proposition of new rules and
guidelines for further limit gambling related advertising to affect consumer behavior towards gambling (Regeringen, 2019).
From the complexity that is the relationship gambling, legislations and availability, we form our first null- and alternative hypothesis (H1):
- H01: Stricter legislation does not affect individual's perception of gambling marketing - Ha1: Stricter legislation does affect an individual's perception of gambling marketing.
2.3 Perception
In the last decades, what has been known as marketing has changed remarkably. Changing from mass communication to all consumers, into dialogs between companies and the consumers. Marketing communication is nowadays seen, and portrayed, as a conversation with products trying to find their own voices, and to the consumers responding
subconsciously to them (Cian et al., 2016).
The way to use the humans’ five senses to reach customers has similarly exponentially been growing in the business world, as well in the world of academia. Krishna and Schwarz (2014) define sensory marketing as “…marketing that engages the consumers’ senses and affects their perception, judgment and behavior…”. Subconsciously, sensory marketing can be used
to create triggers for consumers' perception of a product's image (Krishna & Schwarz, 2014, p.159).
The perception is to a great extent based on the individual’s expectations of the subject.
Whether the individual perceives something as positive or negative, will come to play a big role whether the individual sees the given situation as favorable or unfavorable (Blythe, 2008).
When phased with an unfamiliar situation, the individual’s perception will be based on rational conclusions. If there is no reference for the individual how their expectations are created, people’s expectations are based on standards - making comparisons with previous experiences in familiar situations. If phased with familiar situations, the individual's
perception is based on the individual's emotional factors, where the expectations are based on the perception on how something “should be” (Gellynck et al., 2009).
How we as people act, are influenced by a person's perception about a given situation. Kotler et al. (2013) describes perception as “Perception is the process by which people select, organize and interpret information to form a meaningful picture of the world”. Within the dimension that is perception, there are three stages: exposure (or sensation), attention and interpretation which make up the process of perception (Kotler et al., 2013).
2.3.1Sensation
Sensation refers to the immediate feedback people get from sensory receptors (e.g., eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers) to such basic stimuli as touching an object, different smells, colors and/or sounds (Solomon et al., 2013).
There are five subdimensions (or stimuli) within sensation; Touch, Vision, Smell, Taste and Sound; these stimuli often provide us with more information than we are usually aware of which are largely affected by the person’s cultural background, their unique biases, needs and experiences. (Solomon et al., 2013; Démuth, 2013).
Even though many of the stimuli are relevant when it comes to gambling marketing - the authors have chosen to select, in their minds, the most relevant stimuli for this study - Vision.
Vision
Visual aesthetics have long been recognized as key determinants of ad effectiveness. There are plenty of different levels of contexts regarding the stimuli Vision (Cian et al., 2016). The ever-growing usage of imagery and visual assets in online marketing efforts increases the importance of understanding visual perception each day. Vision is important for marketing teams and researchers to understand that as the perception of products, places, and promotions is central to marketplace interactions (Aydınoğlu et al., 2017).
Depending on the individual's involvement in a subject will create differences on how the individual sees and perceives the given subject. For instance a consumer's perception of a specific product class, will inevitably differ depending on how involved the consumer is towards the specific product class (Michaelidou & Dibb, 2008; Solomon et al., 2013).
One way marketers have since begun to combat this, is using the power of familiarity and nostalgia. If individuals are familiar, involved and trust the content in the ad, they are more likely to use that service. In the gambling market naming the slot machines after popular movies or tv-shows, have been shown to create a powerful tool to allure players, due to familiarity, involvement and nostalgia (Zangeneh et al., 2008).
2.3.2Attention
In today's society, people are on average exposed to 3000 - 5000 advertising messages each day. Therefore, it is impossible for a person to pay attention to each one of these messages. A term that is often recurring with the subject attention is Selective attention. Selective attention is the tendency for people to screen out most of the information that is exposed to us on a regular daily basis. In other words, marketers must work vigorously to attract any consumer’s attention (Kotler et al., 2013).
The human mind tends to learn to ignore simple stimuli and never perplex over extremely complex stimuli. In between these two exaggerations we find a stage of complexity that affects us perceptually. For example, infants will continue to look at faces for a much longer period, but they will lose interest and tune out looking at fully saturated colors (King, 2017).
What best captures an individual's attention are the three key ad elements (brand, pictorial, and text), which each of them have unique effects on attention to advertisements. Pictorial, i.e illustrations, is superior to the key elements in capturing an individual's attention, independent of its size. The text element best captures the individual’s attention in direct proportion to its surface size. Whereas the key element brand is most efficient transfering attention to the other elements (Pieters & Wedel, 2004).
2.4.2.1 Stimulus Factors
When it comes to the perceptual dimension of catching the individual’s attention, there is a sub-dimension called stimulus factors. Stimulus factors are the physical characteristics of the stimulus itself which we can smell, feel or see with the naked eye. These stimulus
characteristics (i.e color and size of advertisements) are controlled by the marketer to attract attention independent of individual or situational characteristics (Solomon et al., 2013).
The attention garnered by stimulus factors often tends to be automatic. For example, even though you are not interested in a car (individual characteristic), a large and colorful car advertisement (situational characteristics) are often hard to overlook (Hawking &
Mothersbaugh, 2010). The authors have chosen, in this study, to focus on a set amount of stimulus factors, since according to the authors, these are the most important factors when it comes to understanding the perception of gambling marketing (see table 2).
Table 2: Stimulus factors
Size
Larger stimuli are more likely to draw attention rather than smaller ones. Size also affects attention towards advertising where larger banner ads tend to drag more attention. Since the large amount of exposure we humans receive each day, the importance of being seen first and greatest becomes increasingly important. This helps to explain why the size of banners and online ads continues to increase in size (Loshe, 1997).
Color & Movement
Color and movement can attract attention, since bright colors and moving items are more eye-catching. Certain colors and color characteristics produce a sense of excitement and arousal related to attention. Bright colors are more noticeable than dull and warm colors such as red and yellow are more arousing than cool colors, such as blues and grays (Elliot, 2015).
A quantitative study done by Nyemcsok et al. (2018) showed that young people (ages ranging from 11-16 years) had high recall and awareness on gambling advertising. Several of the participants were able to name at least one brand associated to gambling and demonstrated a high awareness of specific characteristics (such as colors and appeal strategies) of different brands.
Color is one of the biggest influencers in how we as people perceive objects, it influences how we feel, think, and behave (Broeder & Scherp, 2018). Colors and their meaning can
differentiate massively between people and other cultures, which at a rapid pace can create misunderstandings. In the west the color white represents cleanliness, elegance, and peace - whilst in the east, in countries like China or South Korea it represents death, mourning and bad luck. If one is not careful, this can be overlooked and create misunderstandings (Ghannad, 2020; Solomon et al., 2013).
Contrast and Expectations
Consumers tend to pay more attention to stimuli that contrast with their background rather than to stimuli that mixture with it. In-store displays, packaging and advertising that diverge our expectations, contribute to get more noticed. Ads that stand out from the normality, the type of ad consumers expect for a certain category, often tend to motivate more attention rather than ads that are typical for the product category (Goodstein, 1993).
An obstacle that marketers may encounter is that once an advertisement gets too recognizable to buyers, it will lose its capacity to stand out. Adaptation level theory recommends that if a
stimulus does not change, after some time we adjust or acclimate to it and start to see it less.
In this manner, a promotion that we at first notify when it's new may lose its capacity to catch our attention as we become acquainted with it. However, by being original (unexpected, surprising, unique), an ad can maintain to attract attention even after consumers are familiar with it (Pieters et al., 2002).
Information Quantity
Information quantity is the number of cues in the stimulus field. Cues can relate with the highlights of the brand itself, for example typical clients of the brand or common usage situations. This information can be presented in presentations, on the web or/and in advertisements (Lee & Lee, 2004).
Information is the key that helps consumers to decide, but more information is not necessarily better. How to present information in advertising relies upon various variables, including the specific media utilized. In a newspaper promoting information has a tendency to attract attention, whilst in TV advertising, presenting plentiful information seems to diminish consideration (Lee & Lee, 2004).
One explanation to this is the amount of increment of information in TV. These types of advertisements rapidly lead to information overload since buyers have no influence over the introduction to new introduction. Information overload happens when buyers are up against too much data, so they cannot go through every bit of it. The outcome can be problematic choices (Lee & Lee, 2004).
Intensity
The intensity of a stimulus can increase the attention depending on loudness, brightness, or length. The longer an advertisement is visually presented on-screen, the more likely it is to be noticed and recalled (Rossiter & Silberstein, 2001). In a study where the banner ad was the only existing on the screen for a brief period of time they were shown to produce over three times the level of notice. Compared to the ones with a standard banner format, and almost 25 times the clickthrough rate (Cho et al., 2001)
However, high repetition can contribute a negative effect where repeated exposures overstimulate individuals. Attention drops by almost 50 percent from the first to the third exposure, when a magazine contains several of the same ad (Pieters et al., 1999).
2.3.3Interpretation
Interpretation in the human perceptual process refers to the meaning that people assign to sensory stimuli. Just as people will differ what stimuli they will perceive, the inevitable assignments of meanings to these stimuli are also unique and will vary from one person to another (Solomon et al., 2013). As well as sensation, this process is uniquely individual, because it serves as a basis of consumer’s expectation and previous experiences (Schiffman &
Kanuk, 2000).
2.4 Rational or emotional claims
Advertisements claims are the foundation of which catches the consumers attention, which in turn affects their interpretation and feelings towards a product/service (Kotler et al., 2013) When it comes to portraying the product/services advantages in advertisements, there are two types of advertisement claims which have been established - rational and emotional claims.
The rational claims are, according to Royne & Day (2013), often based on facts and are featured by objectivity. Rational claims often focus on the product’s advantages when it comes to quality, customer value and performance - but the efficiency of the rational claims depends on the conception which the consumer has of the product (Johar & Sirgy, 1991; Zinn
& Manfredo, 2000). Marketers are now starting to shift on focusing on the emotional aspects.
Focusing on the psychological emotional reasoning of purchasing the product/service rather than the rational reasoning (Rytel, 2010).
Emotional claims are often associated with feelings, and are based upon trying to reach for and awake the consumers feelings, to motivate the individual’s to take action. Feeling such as status and happiness, or on the other side of the spectrum - sadness, guilt and fear (Cutler &
Javalgi, 1993). According to Hawkins et al. (2003), the consumer's feelings, whether positive or negative, contribute to the individual actually interpreting the presented message.
Research has found that reaching for the individual’s feelings by using emotional claims are one large factor that establishes and captures the individual’s attention. Further, the usage of emotional claims makes the individual process the presented information (Modig, 2005). Just how effective the emotional advertising claims are, depends in large part on how relevant the individual finds the advertisement and if the individual is in need of what is promoted
(Solomon et al., 2013; Zinn & Manfredo, 2000).
But overall when it comes to marketing which has its focus on the portraying emotional aspects (portraying enjoyment, freedom, adventure and status) have been shown to be more successful/lucrative rather than when focusing on the rational aspects (Royne &
Albers-Miller, 1999).
2.5 Elaboration Likelihood Model
Interest is a strong motivational tool, it vitalizes everything from learning, direction of
attentional shift and setting career trajectories. It is a state which boosts our attention toward a particular topic (Harackiewicz et al., 2016; Renninger & Wozniak, 1985). Similarly as interest creates shifts in people's attention, according to McGrath et al. (2018) individuals’ experience creates attentional biases - that individual’s perception is affected by selective factors in their attention.
Research has shown that depending on the consumer's engagement in a subject/question, this will affect the cognitive process when evaluating a message in marketing. This sort of consumer behavior can be explained with the model developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo, Elaboration likelihood model (Solomon et al., 2013).
Elaboration likelihood model describes why we as consumers interpret certain types of information and how this will lead to that the consumers either change attitude or behavior towards the information presented. One assumption that is made within this model is that the consumer processes the given information. Depending on how interested the consumer is on a certain subject, will change the outcome of how the individual interprets the given
information in two separate ways. These different ways of interpreting information are titled The Central Route to persuasion and The Peripheral route to persuasion within the ELM model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).
2.3.4 The central route to persuasion
The central route to persuasion occurs when the consumer feels that the information from a given message is relevant or interesting. The consumer will therefore closely examine the message and its content, which in turn will contribute to the individual validating and
reviewing the argument presented. The implication of The Central Route is that it is important that strong and trustworthy arguments are presented, if you are to change the consumers attitude towards a certain topic (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).
2.3.5 The peripheral route to persuasion
The peripheral route to persuasion occurs when the consumer is not interested enough in the subject to examine what is presented and the message behind it. In these types of situations there is a need to increase stimulation of other stimuli to attract the customer. This needs to be done since the customer is examining other factors than the actual message behind the
content, these types of factors can be everything from the packaging of a product to which way the content is presented (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).
We therefore expect that experience and interest will act as a moderating variable, triggering increased intent to gamble for individuals who are more experienced or interested in
gambling.
Against this background, formulate the following null- and alternative hypothesis (H2 & H3):
- H02: Earlier experiences towards gambling does not affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing
- Ha2: Earlier experiences towards gambling does affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing
- H03: Ones interest does not affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing - Ha3: Ones interest does affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing 2.6 Perception toward gambling and its advertising
When it comes to problem gamblers, the problem gamblers have been shown to hold both a more optimistic overall perception of the risk in gambling. They also appear to retain the motivation to gamble, despite plenty of negative expectations and experiences, via cognitive processes which resulted in preferential emphasis on positive over negative outcomes (Spurrier & Blaszczynski, 2013).
Key risk factors that have been shown to increase the risk of problem gambling are low levels of academic education and disrupted family relationships. An association between problem gambling and low self-esteem, poor self-discipline, drug and substance misuse and experience of depression have also been shown (Wardle, 2019).
Among youths (ages 16-17 years) there is no distinct difference between boys and girls when it comes to gambling in Sweden. One factor that causes a differentiation between boys and girls, and has been shown to influence people to gamble, is alcohol. When under the influence, leading to reduced perception of risk, there was shown to be a drastic change in problem gambling with an increment from two to eight percent of the boys who gambled (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2019; Folkhälsomyndigheten 2020).
Whereas in general risk taking, males tend to take more risks on certain topics such as intellectual risk taking and physical skills than females (Byrnes et al., 1999). Noble et al.
(2014) suggests that women tend to, in comparison to men, react more strongly to
advertisements filled with, in their eyes, negative emotional claims. Although on the opposite side of the spectrum, there is no significant difference between how men and women react to advertisements filled with positive emotional claims (Noble et al., 2014) .
Where advertising strategies with encouraging promotions were the most influential in getting individuals to gamble (Nyemcsok et al., 2018). Advertisements which focus on monetary rewards have been shown to capture males’ attention and motivation to take actions, whereas females on the contrary reduced the motivation to take action towards the presented
advertisement message (McBridge & Ridinger, 2015).
We therefore expect that gender will act as a moderating variable, varying intent to gamble and attention to gamble depending on the gender of the respondent. Against this background, we formulate the following null- and alternative hypothesis regarding genders attention and perception towards gambling (H4 & H5):
- H04: Gender does not affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing - Ha4: Gender does affect how individuals' perceive gambling marketing - H05: Gender does not affect attention towards gambling marketing - Ha5: Gender does affect attention towards gambling marketing
3 - METHOD
In this chapter, the methodology of this study is presented. All the steps and decisions have been carefully considered, therefore, insights and argumentation regarding different steps and choices are included. Additionally, the different steps and procedures the authors have
considered are described, so that trustworthiness can be achieved.
3.1 Research Purpose
Scientific research can have different purposes. In this study the authors have chosen an explanatory study, as the aim of this study is to test the relationship between the consumers intent to gamble and perception towards gambling advertisements in regards to newly implemented gambling advertising legislations.
A study can either be exploratory, descriptive, explanatory, or a combination of these three purposes. Exploratory is characterized by that it tries to create an understanding of a phenomena that has not been researched and investigated before by asking open-ended
questions about the topic (Saunders et al., 2016). Descriptive studies on the other hand usually aim to answer the questions of whom, what, where and when and are conducted because a specific area could lack investigation (David & Sutton, 2016). The nature of explanatory usually aims to explain relationships between variables (Saunders et al., 2016).
3.2 Research approach: Quantitative research
The study started with an identification of a problem and the construction of the purpose behind this study. This was done to clearly define the field of study, and to put focus on what was to be researched (Backman, 2016). The authors knowingly delimited the study, from the start to the perception of gambling advertising among Swedish consumers and their intention to gamble. This meant that the authors decided in an early state on what shall be included or excluded in the study (Jacobsen, 2002).
As this study emanates from a consumer perspective, amount and quantity are of major importance to create a trustworthy result - which represents more than a small group of people’s opinions. Therefore a quantitative study was set as a research approach by the authors. A research study could be either qualitative or quantitative. Qualitative research is often characterized by non-numeric data, such as words or video clips which often emanates from several interviews (Saunders et al., 2016). Quantitative studies is seen as a scientific research method which focuses on amount and quantity, where the empirical data are analyzed, evaluated and measured in numerical form. The analysis contributes to the determination of different types of variables, and that the connection is measured between them (Christensen et al., 2016; Björklund & Paulsson, 2012).
The focus on amount and quantity in the responses gathered from respondents in a
quantitative study, increases the probability of generalization (Björklund & Paulsson, 2012).
Generalization is something this study strives for, to achieve representative selection, where the authors found that a quantitative method was the best solution for this study, due to the purpose of this study.
Quantitative research’s downfall is that everything is not measurable in a quantitative manner.
The quantitative studies put limitations on the study to generate knowledge, with the
argument that science often differentiates itself from real life. Even though this criticism, the authors reckon a quantitative study to be the best approach in this study.
Further, the selection of a quantitative research was also chosen by the authors to attain anonymity in the collection of primary data. The goal of this was to avoid any type of interviewer effect, which is a risk with a qualitative study (Lavrakas, 2008). The effect can contribute to consequences, in the shape of subjective answers. The individuals who are being interviewed can avoid answering questions honestly. This happens because the interviewed want to eliminate possibilities of putting themselves in an awkward spot. Therefore, the answers in a qualitative study might sometimes be misleading (Lavrakas, 2008). Quantitative research can therefore, in some manner, add more benefits than qualitative research, due the fact that it often contributes to more objective answers from the respondents (Christensen et al., 2016).
Since the aim of this thesis was to explore the Swedish consumers perception towards content messages in the gambling industry with regards to new legislations in Sweden. Therefore, a deductive approach was judged by the authors to be the most suitable approach for this study.
The approach in this study was thereby done by answering the research questions and hypothesis by using prior literature, which was done to develop the study, which later on tested the theory together with the collected data.
When it comes to scientific research methods, there are three specific types: Deductive, inductive, and abductive. The inductive approach starts off from empirical data that has been collected, formed into a hypothesis, and lastly generated to a theory based on existing evidence. The abductive approach starts off briefly in empirical findings, then later focuses heavily on existing theories and lastly returns to the empirical findings (Jacobsen, 2002).
As the deductive approach logic is that “when the premises are true, the conclusion must also be true” (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 144). Thereby the deductive approach was found by the authors to be most suitable for this study.
3.3 Research strategy
When the research approach and purpose of the study are set, the study needs to map how to achieve the goal of the study. Achieving a goal usually means the need of a strategy. In terms of strategy when conducting a study, the authors need to know how to go forward to enable answering the research question, a research strategy (Saunders et al., 2016). Research
strategy refers to the way the authors choose to gather and analyze empirical data (Yin, 1994).
The research approach and purpose are often good guidelines when choosing a fitting research strategy for the study. Certain strategies will however be more suitable for quantitative versus qualitative research (Saunders et al., 2016). When it comes to quantitative studies,
experimental- and surveys research strategies are often considered to be the most fitting strategies (Saunders et al., 2016).
In this study, the authors chose to use an experimental strategy. “The purpose of an
experiment is to study the probability of change in an independent variable causing a change in another, dependent variable. An experiment uses prediction, known as hypotheses, rather than research questions. This is because the researcher anticipates whether or not a
relationship will exist between the variables.” (Saunders, et al., 2016, p.178). A hypothesis is a statement about the relationship between two variables, a dependent and independent variable. A change in the dependent variable occurs as a response to change in the independent variable (David & Sutton, 2016).
Closely related to hypothesis is what is called a null hypothesis, which is used to reflect the status quo - it measures how things have been or how things currently are (Naghshpour, 2012). The null-hypothesis is used as an indication tool to see if there is no difference between the subject groups. If the null hypothesis is rejected, and there is a difference between the subject groups, the so-called alternative hypothesis is used. An alternative hypothesis is a statement that predicts whether there is a relationship between the groups (Corder & Foreman, 2014).
In this study null-hypothesis/alternative hypothesis was used to test the relationship between the dependent variable and an independent variable. If there is a significant correlation, the null-hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted by the premise that coincidence did not play a part (Djurfeldt et al., 2018).
3.4 Data collection 3.4.1 Primary data
When the research strategy has been decided it is time to collect the data, there are two types of data primary and secondary. Primary data is the data which the authors have collected for the specific study and is a firsthand source. Secondary data is gathered from earlier studies, a second-hand source. Secondary data has a different purpose, rather than the primary data, it is used as a foundation to enable work and create new analysis from (David & Sutton, 2016). In this research primary data is used.
To enable the data collection, it is important to find a representative collection of participants to gather the data from. This step is by many seen as a critical moment, since the participating respondents are the ones that will decide if the quality of data will be good enough.
Furthermore, to collect a sample big enough is also of great importance, this gives the researchers the possibility to generalize the results from the collected data (Aguinis &
Brandly, 2014).
When it comes to data sampling techniques, there are two different types: Probability sampling and non-probability sampling. In probability sampling the entire population is known and can be chosen from by the researchers. Contrary, in non-probability sampling, the entirety of the population is not known for the researcher, meaning there is not an equal chance for all the participants to be chosen (Chipp, 2004).
In this study, since it is delimited to Swedish consumers, the authors had access to a large enough population to be fitting for this experiment (e.g., the whole population), three separate university classes at Halmstad University. Meaning the authors used probability sampling
technique when conducting this experiment. The choice of the population in this study was further based on the statistics presented by Folkhälsomyndigheten. The statistics being that gambling have continued to grow in Sweden, and particularly in the ages ranging from 16-44 (Folkhälsomyndigheten, 2020).
According to Jacobsen (2002) a population can be split into two different dimensions: how used they are to answer questionnaires as well as how relevant the study’s issue is for the participants. This is something which the authors thoroughly thought through when choosing population. Both authors have studied at university level for several years, which their own experiences are used as foundation, that students have a habit of answering questionnaires.
The study therefore also concluded that students had a high ability to be able to answer the questionnaire in the experiment.
Due to covid-19, the experiment was conducted online – which was done by sending out surveys to the carefully selected population, and then used the answers that were received from those who voluntarily participated in the experiment. Before the respondents could start answering they were once again informed that the survey was anonymous, which was done to get as true answers from the respondents as possible.
3.2.2Choosing research design
When it comes to experiments, there are two primary ways of conducting the experiment, either “Within subjects” or “between subjects” design. Within subjects designed experiments, each participant who is part of the experiments serves in all levels of the treatment conditions.
These types of experiments are often being treated and untreated or performing tasks when exposed to more than one external stimulus. With these designs, as long as there is
independence of the multiple exposure, estimates can be done by examining how the participants behavior changed when the independent variable of the experiment is changed (Charness et al., 2012).
In “between subjects” experiments, the experimenter manipulates the independent variable and randomly assigns each subject to one of the treatment conditions. With these types of designs, if the group assignment is random, the estimate can be done by comparing the participants behavior of those in one experimental condition group with the behavior of the other group (Charness et al., 2012).
When conducting a within-subjects experiment, one must be cautious of the two effects which often suffer from this form of experiment: Carry-over and demand effects. These effects could occur when the respondents act in accordance with a pattern, or by attempting to provide the answers to satisfy their perception of the experimenter's expectations. Even though between subjects experiments have an advantage when it comes to the risk of respondents acting in accordance with a pattern and social desirability - within subjects designs, in many cases, are a closer match to a theoretical perspective (Rosenthal, 1997; Zizzo, 2010).
Within subjects are seen to have three main advantages when it comes to analysis in regard to between subjects: The internal validity does not depend on random assignment, in many frameworks offer a substantial boost in statistical power, increased natural alignment with theoretical mindsets (Charness et al., 2012).
For these reasons, this study has used the within subject experiment approach, to as close as possible match a theoretical perspective.
3.4.3 Manipulated factors: Independent & dependent variable
To test the purpose of this study, to see how consumers' perception has changed towards content messages in the gambling industry with the regards of new legislations in Sweden, one must check how the independent variable changes the dependent.
In this study, the authors were testing how the intention (i.e., perception) to gamble
(dependent variable) changed due the legislation making the marketing stricter (independent variable). To test this, images were created to reflect a realistic marketing campaign. The authors constructed a text-based scenario experiment, with different statements and figurative elements regarding gambling for the respondents to take action towards.
- Text-based statement 1 (henceforth called after): Sveriges bästa odds - Sport & casino - Text-based statement 2 (henceforth called prior): Klockrena Vägen Till Guldet
When designing the manipulations, the aspects which were chosen to include were based on theories regarding perception (see section 2.4), gambling advertising in Sweden (see section 2.2.2), and inspiration from real life gambling advertisements (Casivo, 2021; Efolket, 2018;
Konsumentverket, 2019).
The manipulated factor in the experiment thereby was the text in the advertisements, keeping every other factor constant. Meaning the experiment had its focus on how the respondents intention (i.e perception) to gamble would change depending on the text in the
advertisements.
3.4.4 Creating survey questions & Likert-scale
Rather than just manipulating the text (i.e. statements) in the experiments advertisements, questions regarding the respondents experience and interest with gambling were made based on the sensory marketing and elaboration likelihood model (see section 2.3 & 2.5; see appendix 2). When creating the survey questions there were three fundamental demands regarding the survey questions according to Statistiska centralbyrån (1990) the authors had to consider and implement.
1. “Ömsesidigt uteslutande”: Meaning that the answering alternatives must be controlled so they are mutually exclusive. Wrongful wording can make is hard to analyze the results
2. “uttömande”: Meaning that the answering alternatives A possibility for the respondent to place their information somewhere within the given category must exist. Thereby the answering alternatives must be complete.
3. “Överblickbara”: The answering alternatives must be in a confined amount, so that all answering alternatives have an equal chance to be chosen.
Furthermore, the survey questions were created, and formulated, using existing theories to get an as close result to the reality as possible (see appendix 2). This is what Eliasson (2013) defines as operationalizing. Operationalizing is defined as developing and defining certain concepts, but also making the concepts measurable by using indicators (Eliasson, 2013;
Bryman & Bell, 2017).
To measure the respondents’ answers on the survey questions, and to see how the
respondent’s perception changed with regards to the text in each image, the answers were all measured in a five-point scale:
- 1 = I do not agree whatsoever - 2 = I agree on a few points - 3 = neither nor
- 4 = I agree on most points - 5 = I agree on all points
Which are, according to Jacobsen (2002), the most used answering alternatives. The five-point do have some criticism pointed towards it, whether a middle category shall be part of
experiments or not. Although if the topic in the questionnaire targets to measure opinions, attitudes, or feelings, it is common that a middle category is included. This sort of scale, with a middle category and focuses on statements, is more commonly called Likert-scale which is intended to measure attitudes (Jacobsen, 2002).
3.4.5 Manipulation check
Manipulation checks are used to estimate the effectiveness of a treatment. After the
experiment is done, the experimenter asks the respondents to fill out an additional survey, to ensure that the experiment measures what is intended to measure, researchers often perform a manipulation check. (Hauser et al., 2018).
Henceforth the authors, to check on the meaning and effectiveness of the treatment, conducted a manipulation check at the end of the experiment. The authors asked the participants to fill out and answer two specific questions, on a scale (1-5), how the participants' intentions to gamble were affected when exposed to the specific treatments (see appendix 3).
In addition to checking on the effectiveness of the treatment, a manipulation check also allows the researcher a second, correlational, method. A method of checking on the plausibility of the hypothesis, even when the manipulation was ineffective (Hauser et al., 2018).
3.4.6 Literature review
The literature review was mainly done via Google Scholar and Halmstad University library database combined with Ebookcentral to find relevant literature within the field of study.
Earlier studies on the field, and their references, were also reviewed and analyzed to find inspiration towards peer review articles. The articles that the authors searched for was “peer reviewed” was found via keyword such as: Online gambling, Gambling advertising, gambling marketing, gambling legislation, legislation perception, gambling legislation Sweden,
legislation perception Sweden, gambling perception, perceptual process, consumer behavior gambling, gambling problem, gambling problem perception, perception gambling message, rational marketing, emotional marketing.
The development of these keywords came from broader keywords such as which the authors deducted from relevant marketing literature: advertising, consumer behavior, online gambling, landscape gambling, perception.
The focus was mainly towards different approaches to advertisements within the gambling sector. In time the focus shifted more and more towards gaining knowledge on why
consumers perceive content messages in a certain way.
Due to this study being constructed in a deductive manner, the literature has been gathered from books and scientific research articles. They are used to lay the foundation to the survey which will be used to gather the primary data in the study.
3.5 Validity and reliability
Validity and reliability have to do with the study’s entire credibility. The validity refers to how valid the research is, to see if the study measures what it is intended to be measured.
Reliability refers to how reliable the research is. A study with high reliability can be repeated several times and get the same result (David & Sutton, 2016).
To ensure the study’s validity and reliability the authors have conducted a pilot experiment, which is done to create the best experiment possible. Furthermore, the pilot was constructed to ensure that the experiment was to be perceived in the correct way and for the authors to make possible changes to the primary experiment (Bryman & Bell, 2017).
Further, to obtain the most credible conclusions which lays the closest to reality as possible, the authors set the goal of this experiment to collect at least 60-70 answers from responding participants. In this manner, the authors can be certain that the data collected, and that the conclusions that are drawn from the data, is valid and based on a broad basis (David & Sutton, 2016). Since the majority of the population’s mother tongue is Swedish, the authors decided upon creating the entire survey in Swedish. This was done to reduce the risk of the
respondents misinterpreting the survey questions.
3.5.1 Pilot Study
To ensure the quality of the experiment and additionally that the experiment was measuring what it was supposed to measure, a pilot test was conducted to ensure validity of the study. A pilot test in deductive studies is used for checking of possible errors before testing on the selected population (David & Sutton, 2016).
The pilot test was both sent out to respondents with an academic background and to
respondents which matched the characteristics of the population. The purpose of which is to secure relevant feedback of high quality.
3.6 Ethics
Confidentiality refers to that the researcher sees to it that no one except the research team can identify those who take part in the study, and that the individuals’ responses are not passed along to others (David & Sutton, 2016).
To respect and acknowledge the privacy protection of every person, the authors set a
requirement of consent for every individual who was to take part in the experiment. This was done by, during the experiment, asking all participants if they agree to be part of this study. To furthermore ensure the privacy of each participant in the experiment, the researchers decided to keep the experiment entirely anonymous, (e.g., all the participants were held anonymous).
3.7 Data analysis
Due to respect of the respondents, and for the validity of the study, the gathered data were kept private, anonymous, and protected throughout the entire data analysis. Since there was a high chance that the authors knew the respondents’ that participated in the study. Keeping the data private and anonymous, reduced the risk that the authors could have been influenced by familiar names in the data.
To start analyzing the data the computer software SPSS was used. SPSS gives support in helping to find similarities and differences in the data. Therefore, in a quantitative study, it is often said that the answers exist in the gathered data – what is left to do is to apply meaning to the data (Söderbom & Ulvenblad, 2016). The analysis of the study therefore started with doing a descriptive analysis, focusing on the mean value. The usage of mean value on the survey answers gave the authors an indication of the population’s perception of gambling marketing. By having used a Likert-scale as a measurement tool for the survey questions provided the authors clear statistical indications of the respondents’ answers.
But using descriptive analysis can only provide the study with so much, as it provides absolute numbers, it does not give any reasoning behind the numbers. The addition of an inferential analysis was added in as tools to analyze the data, using correlation tests anova and repeated measures to help analyze the relationships between variables. This which in turn enabled the authors to generalize the results and make predictions by applying theory to the findings.
3.8 Statistical tests 3.8.1 Anova
A one-way Anova test is used to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of two or more independent groups (Laerd statistics, 2018).
For the Anova test to be used, there are certain requirements that must be met.
- The dependent variable must be continuous, meaning at an interval or ratio level - A independent variable that is categorical, meaning two or more groups
- Cases that have values on both the dependent and independent variables 3.8.2 Repeated measures
A repeated measures test is used to compare the means of two different measurements taken from the same individual. The purpose of which is to determine if there is statistical evidence that the mean difference between two observations is significantly different from zero (Kent state university, 2021).
3.8.3 Linear regression
A linear regression is a commonly used predictive analysis, to identify the strength and the effect of the independent variables. The regression analysis is conducted to examine two specific notions:
1. Checks and sees if the predictor variable does an efficient job in predicting an outcome in the dependent variable?
2. And to see which of the variables that are the significant predictors to the dependent variable (Statistics Solutions, 2021).
3.8.3.1 Moderator effect
A moderator effect is part of the linear regression to see if a third variable influences the correlation strength of the relationship that exists between the dependent and independent variable (Statistics Solutions, 2021).
4. Empirical data
In this chapter, the empirical results from the pilot study and the quantitative experimental survey will be presented. Tables, which were created in SPSS, will be presented throughout the chapter. Whereas the authors used an alpha level of .05 for all statistical tests. At the end of the chapter, table 6 summarizes the results.
4.1 Outcome pilot study
The respondents of the pilot study were asked to analyze the questions and design of the survey, which was done to get a new point of view of the survey.
The pilot study resulted in two major changes in the survey. Firstly, a change in the ordering of the questions, which made sure that the respondents’ answered the most critical and important questions sooner rather than later. Secondly, a change in the grammar and formulation of the question, to reduce the risk of the respondents interpreting the survey questions in different manners.
4.2 Result experimental survey
Here the results from the quantitative experimental survey will be presented. Tables will be used and presented to help visualize the results of the gathered data in a clear manner. The results presented lays the foundation for either the support or rejection of the hypothesis, which were presented in the theoretical framework.
183 students in Halmstad Högskola, were contacted and asked to participate in the survey. The response rate of the survey was 39%, with responses adding up to 71 participating. Whereas 39 of the participants were female, 32 male and 0 non-binary.
4.2.1 Result manipulation check
After the respondents had completed all the survey questions, a short follow up survey was sent out where the respondents were asked to answer a quick question whether they perceived the ads, specifically the text in the ads, as inviting to play (See appendix 3). The five-point manipulation check, asking whether they thought the text in the ad were, 1= not inviting at all, 3 = neither and 5 = very inviting.
It was found that the respondents (n=37) reported low, but significantly different, levels of intent to gamble (Mprior= 2.53, Mafter= 1.95), F(4,33) = 35.501, p<0.05. This indicates that the advertisement, which is regulated by the strict law, was not that appealing to the vast majority of the respondents. Thereby the manipulation check worked as intended, and measured what it was intended to measure.
