An Empirical Investigation of the Cultural Impact on Consumer Perception and Attitude Towards Advertising

Abstract

This study examines the cultural impact on consumer perception and attitudes towards advertising in Kuwait. A questionnaire was distributed to 520 consumers from three different nationalities; Kuwaiti and Arabic, East Asian and Indian, Western consumers from Europe, The United States of America (USA) and Canada. Representing three different cultures; the Kuwaiti will signify a conservative and social culture, the Eastern countries will represent a less conservative and social culture, and the Western element will stand for a less conservative and individual culture. Moreover, the questionnaire is aimed at answering three main questions. Firstly, what are the consumers’ attitudes towards advertising in Kuwait and whether the personal characteristics have an affect on consumers’ attitudes towards advertising? The second question is, whether the culture will be affected by advertising and whether advertising threatens the local culture? The third question tries to evaluate whether people from different cultural backgrounds will have different attitudes towards advertising? The results have illustrated that consumers in Kuwait, in general, have negative attitudes towards advertising. Kuwaiti and Western groups have negative attitudes whilst the Eastern contingent has a more positive attitude. In addition, the culture has a significant affect in shaping consumers’ attitudes towards advertising. This indicates that consumers, even though they received the same advertising in the same environment (Kuwait), still tend to perceive it differently based on their cultural background. Consumers from less conservative cultures (liberal cultures) hold the belief that advertising will not affect the local culture, while consumers from more conservative cultures have a negative attitude towards advertising as they trust that it will affect the local culture. The study indicate that attitude towards advertising cannot be generlaised to a different demographic group. It is suggested that education has the least effect on attitudes to advertising; however the number of children in the family and the monthly income have the strongest effect. Marital status did not occur related to any aspects of attitude. Furthermore, the study also indicates that negative attitudes seem to be associated with personal characteristics such as being female, under forty-five years of age, having more than one child, with limited education (diploma or intermediate), and an income greater than 400 Kuwaiti dinar per month