Shock advertising. Are consumer responses affected by culture? A case study on Benetton campaigns under Oliviero Toscani examining German and English responses

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: First class, University of Birmingham, 55 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: This thesis analyses the impact of culture on the perception of advertising. I chose to compare and contrast English and German repsonses to Benetton campaigns under Toscani. The research process included secondary research as well as primary research. Primary research consisted of focus groups in both countries as well as questionnaires. Chi-square anlaysis was used as one method of analysing the gather data next to content analysis. , abstract: This research aimed to show whether responses to shock advertising campaigns are influenced by culture The aim and objectives for this research included to analyse the techniques and impact of shock advertising, evaluate the cultural characteristics of Germany and England in relation to the perception of advertising, analyse the impact of four selected campaigns on Benetton's financial performance and to critically evaluate the extent to which culture influences the acceptance of shock advertising through focus groups/questionnaires. The gathered data from questionnaires and focus groups was then compared and contrasted against the findings from secondary sources as well as against each other. The comparison of the three types of research showed that differences between both cultures exist. Both countries have different approaches towards the Benetton campaigns: Germany strategically and England emotionally. This does not necessarily mean they respond differently to them, although research has shown that, as opposed to data gathered in the secondary literature, Germany responded more tolerantly and openly to the campaigns than expected, whereas England, expected according to the secondary literature to understand advertising based on creativity, did just the opposite. Th