Prague University of Economics and Business International Business
Consumer Attitudes Towards Social Media Advertising
Author: Ornella – Kim Buxbaum
Thesis instructor: doc. Ing. Přemysl Průša, Ph.D.
Scholar year: 2020/2021
Declaration
I hereby declare that I am the sole author of the thesis entitled “Consumer Attitudes Towards Social Media Advertising.” I duly marked out all quotations. The used literature and sources are stated in the attached list of references.
In Prague on ... Signature
Acknowledgement
I hereby wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to my thesis supervisor, doc. Ing.
Přemysl Průša, Ph.D., for his guidance, advice, and feedback during my thesis journey.
I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents for providing me with the immense opportunity to study at the university and be my source of strength. Similarly, I would like to thank my friends for their encouragement and support.
Table of Contents
Introduction 5
1 Marketing and Commercial Communication 7
1.1 Marketing 7
1.2 The Situation Analysis 8
1.3 Market Segmentation 9
1.4 Marketing Communication 9
2 Social Media 12
2.1 Facebook 16
2.2 Instagram 19
2.3 YouTube 21
3 Consumer Behavior in Online Fashion Markets 22
4 Fashion Market in the Czech Republic 25
4.1 Zalando 26
4.2 About You 28
5 Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Social Media Communication 29
5.1 Quantitative Research 29
5.2 Research Methodology 30
5.3 Socio-Demographic Profile of The Respondents 31
5.4 Consumer Perception on Social Media Advertising 34
5.4.1 YouTube 38
5.4.2 Facebook 42
5.4.3 Instagram 46
5.5 Summary of Research Results 51
6 Recommendations for Marketing Communication via YouTube, Facebook and Instagram 53
Conclusion 55
Bibliography 57
Appendix 1 – List of Figures 60
Appendix 2 – List of Drawings and Pictures 61
Appendix 3 – List of Tables 61
Appendix 4 – Questionnaire 62
Introduction
Social media has fallen into a cultural positioning rather than a technological advancement. It became a symbol of differentiation and shaping society into the emergence of social interactions. Social media helps entrepreneurs, students, and ordinary people to ease the pace of their everyday life. To find information, create research, communicate with nearly everyone in almost all parts of the world. This 21st-century phenomenon changed most lives, but there is still room for development. In the beginning, many social media platforms such as Facebook or Instagram only connected people from local communities/universities. However, they started to reach for something even more significant in a reasonably short time - tying the whole world and all people in it. This social media progress also developed a new business model based on online commercial communication. Companies and organizations pay social networking service companies to advertise their goods and services. Hence, social media networks such as Youtube report making billions of American dollars every single year.
Nevertheless, why are companies willing to spend their revenue on these platforms? One of the reasons is providing a unique possibility to address and attract potential millennial customers directly. Millennial customers currently make up the most substantial buying power. Over 72%
of Millennials are active shoppers and active social media users (specifically Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) only in the US (Brooke Auxier and Monica Anderson, 2021).
Companies decided to connect these two factors and use them as an advertising tool primarily for millennials.
All seemingly tremendous and straightforward tools to become visible in the modern world are only applicable when the companies have a strategically developed know-how of the formats and publishing methods on different social networks. Each network may have the same audience, but the expectations differ based on the formats used in the social media platform.
All formats have a different influence on the audience's mind. Therefore, the formats should be examined by companies investing in online marketing to effectively attract the target segment.
There is no direct guideline to create an effective advertising strategy. Most brands that are from the same segment use a different approach. However, the success has not fully been
linchpin identifies the society's perception of selected advertising formats on two e-commerce fashion companies - Zalando and About You. Both brands have headquarters in Germany and recently entered the Czech market. Their know-how on the Czech consumer thinking may be slightly more limited than in the German market as the countries fall under a different cultural group. Therefore, a different culture and the customer reasoning behind buying certain products may also be discernible.
The public's opinion of the advertising format is vital because an appealing advert attracts potential customers who are willing to visit the company's website and purchase a product, which is ultimately each company's goal. Thus, the paper will serve as a case study where a selected number of respondents will fill out a survey based on their perceptions and opinions on social media advertisements. The results will be compared and analyzed in graphs. The respondents are Czech millennials (people between 18 and +- 45 years old) living in the Czech Republic.
The subject of the thesis is to provide a general recommendation based on respondents' preferred advertising technique through social media and their role in influencing potential customers based on their demographic characteristics in favor of visiting Zalando or About You's webpage and purchase the brand's products. The thesis should be preliminary relevant to fashion e-commerce that actively uses or plans to utilize Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram in Czechia.
Besides the mentioned goals, the thesis revolves around the following research questions that will also be asked in the questionnaire to create a more exact recommendation for the used commercial communication:
• Are consumers of various demographics who use YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook influenced differently depending on the used advertising format?
• How successful among potential customers is Zalando and About You in advertising their brand?
• What social media network communication is the most efficient in particular fashion brands to increase willingness to buy their product?
1 Marketing and Commercial Communication
The definitions of the terms "Marketing" and "Commercial Communication" are easily interchanged. Commercial communication is a subset of marketing. It implements marketing strategies and tactics to reach its objectives. While marketing targets to achieve its marketing plan that is measurable, attainable, and fulfilled in a given time. Commercial communication evolves from the marketing plan based on set communication tasks. It focuses on the target audience based on the marketing strategy and segmentation.
1.1 Marketing
Marketing is an ever-evolving dynamic process continuously changing according to technological developments. The general premise of marketing is to do all activities to smoothly get any good or service from a producer to a customer. It is both an administrative and a social activity where people offer and receive what they desire. One way to understand its basics is to imagine a hierarchical scheme where marketing is on the top level. The highest point refers to all kinds of activities within a company to sell or promote a good or a service (Kotler, 2000).
Drawing 1: Marketing Process
Source: Kotler, 2000
"Goals and Philosophy" is the base of the scheme. It is the company's predefined goals, intentions, and marketing objectives that create the brand's identity and aim to gain a unique position and awareness in the market. By determining its mission and vision, where the brand
defines its purpose and an ideal future position in the market. The market research may reinforce the mission and vision as the company collects information about the target markets and consumers, strategically determines the potential issues, and minimizes them. The company must research its attributes and external features to create a wanted "brand" by its aspects related to the company that stands out from its competitors.
1.2 The Situation Analysis
The company situation analysis (SWOT) evaluates both features and builds comprehension of the company, its competitors, and the target market. The components of the analysis are internal and external factors with subsets of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. The internal factors assess the benefits and drawbacks of the specific company. The external elements are threats that may cause difficulties and opportunities that may benefit the company from the external environment. For example, Nike's strengths are strong brand awareness, reputation, and marketing campaigns (Just do it). However, they advertise themselves as a company selling sportswear rather than fashionable apparel. If the threat is an overly competitive sports segment. The opportunity can be an increased promotion and diversify the products (Emet Gürel, 2017).
Nevertheless, the external factors identified in the SWOT analysis are subjective. The organization's impacts and the macro-environmental factors of the economy are not in great detail. That is when the PESTEL analysis comes into force. This analysis monitors the external environment and scrutinizes the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors of the market, obtained in government bureaus, surveys, and interviews. The political factors identify how the government affects businesses by their tax system, policies, laws, and political stability. The economic part represents the economic growth, opportunities, fiscal policies, and monetary costs for doing the business. Then the social factor determines the population growth - mortality, age distribution, and the area's social environment and culture.
The technological inventions and their use in producing goods and services are the technological factors and sustainability and environmental consciousness in the environmental factors. Lastly, the legal factors determine the economy's health and safety, regulations, and implemented directives (Holly Fosher, 2018). These kinds of market research help determine the company's perfect position in the target country and compile an overview of the consumer's profile, which helps create the marketing philosophy.
Marketing philosophy scrutinizes the production, promotion techniques, social and environmental awareness, and intentions, potential customer satisfaction, and response. The scheme's base develops to different sets of tactical marketing instruments that make the brand more demanded. Marketing mix and strategy focus on segmenting and targeting customers and positioning the brand in the market.
1.3 Market Segmentation
Segmentation and targeting are, in a way acknowledging the unlikelihood to sell products to everyone simply because we have different preferences. However, many people share similar tendencies and characteristics such as gender, age, residence/birth, values, interests, lifestyles, attitudes, and culture. The consumer segmentation is, therefore, an outline shaped from the demographic, geographic, and behavioral characteristics of the customers who are interested in buying the company's products. The organization can predetermine the segmentation by comparing the competitors' target groups and ascertaining the target consumer segment from surveying and interviewing the public (Gillian Martin, 2011).
The segmentation is a part of the marketing strategy that dictates company approaches to reach competitive advantage and fundamental goals such as attracting customers and profit maximization.
1.4 Marketing Communication
The company should define tactical marketing instruments and strategy methods used as a bedrock for all businesses alongside market research. Traditionally, they pivot on product, price, place, and promotion (4Ps). The following table covers examples of the mentioned 4Ps (Singh, M. 2012).
Table 1: The 4Ps of Marketing Mix
Product Price Place Promotion
Quality Usefulness Packaging
Design Usability
Services
Retail Wholesale Local / Export
Internet Multi-channel
Peer to Peer
Logistics Assortment
Delivery Internet Stocks Market
Advertisement Sponsorships
Online PR Sales Promotion Direct Marketing Source: Singh, M., 2012
The concept "Marketing Communication" is a synonym for "Promotion" from Table 1. As the name infers, its purpose is to communicate, inform, offer, solicit or promote any good or service directed towards current or potential customers, the brand, or the company itself. The objectives are to create awareness, brand or product superiority, and build brand image - consumers' perception of the brand. As today's generation is leaning towards the digital world, online and mobile advertising seems to be the most effective next step in commercial communication's focus (Kotler,2000).
Online communication acts as the most accessible and limitless type of promotion. Effective social media marketing relies on the content, purpose, and the right way to use the possibilities of the internet, such as podcasting, video creation, the use of celebrities/influencers from the whole world and creating a global internet framework. Successful internet marketing helps the users catch interest in the product enough to click on the ad or visit the site and purchase a product. This framework opens new techniques to serve target customers by continuously evolving data and metrics to perfectly serve and gain insights about each potential customer (Claudiu V. Dimofte, Curtis P. Haugtvedt, Richard Yalch 2015). Social media creates a new way to reach potential customers. Initially, two principal marketing agencies in the promotion were distinguishing two main types. Above the line, targeting a broader audience (billboards, TV adverts), and below the line, focus on a narrower audience (direct emails/calls). Online promotion, however, created a new integrated approach called through-the-line advertising.
The digital footprint analyzes users' - potential customers' input, and based on their searches, the company may adjust the advertised product to effectively catch the customers' attention
(Nidhi Arora, 2018). One of the common types of online advertising is display advertising (banners, texts, images, videos, and other graphic advertising formats on internet websites) and search advertising. Search adverts are on search engines and show due to search queries (Taranpreet Kaur, Ennu Sambyal, 2017).
The popularity of online marketing spending continuously grows; Statista reported that 104.8 billion USD was spent worldwide in 2019. It was forecasted to grow to 137 billion USD by 2022. In Czechia, according to the Association for Internet Development in the Czech Republic (SPIR), it was reported to 34 billion CZK (1,6 billion USD). The investments in 2018 went to 28,6 billion CZK (1,32 billion USD), an approximate 20% increase from which is 20% spent on display advertising and 23% on search advertising. Although the newest data ended in 2019, forecasts show the data will continue to increase in the upcoming years.
The following Figure 1 shows the growing trend of expenditures in internet advertising in the Czech Republic. The expenditures are in CZK (1 USD = approx. 21.57 CZK). Allegedly, companies in the Czech Republic invest the most considerable portion of their advertising expenses in Seznam.cz, Sklik.cz, Google ads, and Facebook).
Figure 1: Internet Advertising Expenditure Development in the Czech Republic
*estimation excluding SMS and MMS
As shown in Figure 1, the trend will continue to grow. Considering that the estimation of expenditures in internet advertising excludes SMS and MMS, we may assume that the Czech Republic's total expenditure will be even higher. Notwithstanding the mentioned assumptions, it is essential to bear in mind that online advertising is more than only display and search advertising. Online communication may come in many shapes and formats depending on the company's approach if they want to be more personal than sending emails, online coupons for loyal customers, online chat, SMS, or MMS.
The digital era helped to revolutionize the world of marketing communication and its possibilities. Although it is fair to say the result is similar to any other form of promotion. The goal is to maximize profits and total revenue; this form is much more flexible than any other.
It offers direct shopping from everyone's comfort, direct communication with shareholders, and more precise adjustments to the changing consumer behavior in different social media networks. The next chapter provides a further explanation of the social media network practices.
2 Social Media
Social media is widely known as internet-based applications facilitating information sharing, network career opportunities, and opinions. However, the original purpose was to ease communication with family and peers. It became an open digital platform for both natural and legal people. Everyone can communicate, share content, and promote themselves to anyone who has access to the internet. Therefore, the popularity of social media increases and, so does the number of users (Maya E. Dollarhide, 2020). Figure 2 shows the annual and estimated increase for the upcoming years in the world.
Figure 2: The Development of Social Media Users Worldwide
Source: statista.com, 2020
In 2020 the average number of social media users was 3.6 billion. It was 3.4 billion in 2019, which is a 5.88% annual increase. The trend will continue to rise by approximately 5% in the next two years. Companies should know if the trend is similar in the markets, they plan to enter to know whether advertising on social media will gain the targeted range of audiences. For example, the Czech Republic has over 7 million people (81% of the population) over 16 years old that are active on social media. In general, they spend online on average 2 hours a day with a 3.3% average increase of new users every year. According to Petr Michl, a Czech chief editor of the Marketing Journal and a PR and digital agency Focus consultant, the top 5 most used social media networks in the Czech Republic are Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, and Snapchat, and reportedly over half of the companies with a branch in the Czech Republic in 2017 were headhunting new employees through social media. The following Figure 3 shows the preferences of the most popular social media platforms in the Czech Republic based on gender.
Figure 3: The Percentage Difference Between Women and Men Based on Their Social Media Preference from 2019
Source: Petr Michl, 2019
Based on Figure 3, women are more active on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat while men prefer Twitter and LinkedIn. In total, social networks are more used by women than men by 3.2%. The selected sample consists of 8% seniors over 65 years (Petr Michl, 2019).
These factors have a direct effect on the approach of marketing communication. Social media marketing offers a great variety of cheaper or even cost-free tools in connection with traditional marketing methods. The cost per thousand impressions (CPM) is a metric denoting the price of 1 000 impressions from a selected advertisement from 1 website (Augustine Fou, 2014). The tool measures spendings that reach 1 000 people, and the goal is to reach as many people as possible at a low cost. In the most recent cross-channel media costs comparison in the Czech Republic, social media advertising costs are the lowest (2.5 USD). The second-lowest is billboards (5 USD), and direct mail is the most expensive advertising method at 57 USD. In other words, social media advertising is the only method that can reach 1000 people for less than 3 USD. Besides, it provides many more options than traditional advertising, such as publishing videos, articles, banners, and many more (Petr Michl, 2019). The key to a successful social media promotion strategy is to build a community and relationships and enhance word of mouth communication between customers themselves by commenting on posts/pictures or
videos. The brand can see the customers' opinions about the products. Thus, the brand receives valuable feedback directly from the customer as opposed to second-hand opinions.
Furthermore, social media offers nearly free brand exposure as one captivating post may reach millions of users. The exposure makes potential customers aware of the product, whether they are attentive to the specific advert/product or not. Even the people who like the posts or the page of a company are potential customers. Notwithstanding that they do not buy anything, they still maintain the company's popularity through their interaction which prospectively entices a new audience to learn more about the company (Neti, S. 2011).
Social media marketing benefits accompany many risks and challenges, such as the readiness of the companies to communicate effectively, and engage the potential customers on social media networks. The internet is fast-paced and nearly everywhere in the world. 71% of customers in the US reported that if they have a positive experience with the brand on social media, they will likely recommend the brand to their family and peers. 49% of customers consider positive recommendations on social media and influencers before making a purchase (Maryam Mohsin, 2020). The ineffective use of social media platforms, such as overly commercialized advertising on the main pages, causes a decrease in the company's interest.
However, if the brands do not regularly post relevant content and share offensive posts that mock other companies or people, the marketing strategy is counterproductive.
Consequently, the companies may lose their followers from the platforms. Although it may be evident that improper advertising is terrible, there is almost a thin line between something that is considered as fun and creative as a fiasco. Many prominent corporations have scandals due to their so-called social media failures. For example, four years after the annual Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, Adidas sent out emails to all customers who participated that year that says: "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon." The result was usually negative and caused a financially significant decrease in support for the company (Eric Griffith, 2018).
The companies who plan to be active on social media choose the cost-effective path to engage millennials and easily record their responses. Success on social media is all about building a fan base; therefore, the content's creativity and notability are the keys.
However, they must be fully aware of the wide audience they reach and count on the possible
is not to satisfy everyone but to realize that everything on social media is public. Everything the companies do has an appropriate consequence. It is also essential to understand that the users in different social media services may be the same. However, they have different expectations from the particular network they are currently on. The following pages of the theoretical framework will explain the general differences between selected social media platforms based on the US's highest usage.
2.1 Facebook
Facebook is an American conglomerate founded by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes in 2004. The company is among the Big Five American information technology companies with reported over 2.4 billion active users in 2020, out of which 1.6 billion people use it as a business platform. The number represents a 4% increase from 2019 and a 26% increase from 2014. Facebook currently owns Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus, and many other technology-based companies (Sarah Alboulhosn, 2020).
As social media marketing became topical. Facebook managed to stay up to date and created a free "Business Suite" site. The site is adapted for company accounts to ease the path of making professional posts and ads. Moreover, in 2020, Facebook published an updated guideline of four prominent and most popular advertising formats for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Audience Network. The formats are Image and Video Ads, Carousel, and Collection Ads.
However, only the "Image Ads" will be analyzed in the research. It is the most commonly used advertising format, according to the Facebook report published in 2020. Image Ads are the most common and convenient type of Facebook advertising for most businesses. The ad may be created directly in the Business Suite in a couple of minutes. The tool is the least time- consuming method appropriate to promoting a physical product, brand, or the brand's message with a short but intriguing description. It is also a less expensive promotion method.
The advertising company only pays when the potential customer clicks on the ad - cost per click (CPC method). The costs vary based on the market segment, but the average in 2020 was 1.72 USD and 7.19 USD per 1000 impressions. Even though the posts' price is low and does not take too long to publish, both the content must be appropriate and appealing. Many companies solely post images of their products – online fashion companies such as About You
want to convey a particular message that raises awareness of their campaign. These differences and their appeals will also be discussed later in the research part of the paper. Facebook's recommendation is to keep the description down to 30 characters. The image type should be either JPG or PNG to ensure the best quality of the image. Image Ad 1 is an example of a brand called About You, which will be analyzed later in the thesis to a deeper extent, meeting Facebook's recommendations from the guideline.
Image Ad 1: Facebook post
The description of Image 1 says, "Style. Trend.
Practicality… All is hidden in this handbag." The simplicity of the picture's description is highlighted by the picture. The mentioned handbag is arresting much more than a complex text that most people may not even read. Furthermore, users are fully aware of the post's purpose. They may quickly learn more about the handbag by clicking on the hyperlink included in the caption and leave a comment below the post to share their opinions and thoughts.
Source: Facebook, 2021
To understand the importance of Facebook and its business possibilities. Facebook Inc.
annually releases a statistical report of active users. Although 68% of Americans are active on Facebook, they only comprise 10% of the world. The majority of Facebook users are from Asia and Pacific countries, concretely India with over 320 million users. India and Indonesia make slightly over 40% of monthly active Facebook users. Figure 4 is taken from Facebook Inc.'s annual report to determine the number of active users worldwide.
The report purely includes Facebook users (WhatsApp, Instagram, or other companies owned by Facebook Inc. are excluded from the report).
Figure 4: Facebook Users at the Beginning and End of Each Year From 2017 - 2019
Source: Facebook, 2019
Figure 4 highlights that Asian and Pacific countries compromise many users and the highest percentage change of 22.3% between 2017 and 2019. The second-highest percentage change is in Europe (4.6%). However, it is vital to consider the enormous territorial differences between selected regions. All of them are in constant growth. The country of the paper's focus - the Czech Republic, had over 5.3 million active users on Facebook in the last quarter of 2019. From the world perspective, the age range among Facebook users is wide. Over 72% are within the 18 - 44-year-old range, and expressly, millennials between 25 and 34 represent nearly 32% of all Facebook users.
Nevertheless, unlike in the Czech Republic, 6.2% more millennials worldwide are male.
Although the number of users seems to be high and Facebook remains the leading social platform, the number of users worldwide dropped. In 2015, 58% of Facebook users between 12 - 43 years old identified Facebook as their most used social media platform.
Currently, the number is as high as 32% of Facebook users. According to 27% of millennials, the second most used platform is Instagram (Jenn Chen 2021).
Considering that Facebook has been popular for over a decade, there are, without a doubt, many presumptions the platform might "extinct" in the next decade due to Zuckerberg's privacy scandals that are not likable among the Gen Z population and although the owners are the same, Instagram is seemingly a safer alternative to Facebook when it comes to the basic privacy policy.
2.2 Instagram
Instagram is a social networking service owned by Facebook but created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010. The app started as a tool to share pictures and videos. Later, it upgraded to messaging and creating a shopping section where companies may advertise their products.
In 2019, the cost per click on an ad ranged between 0.2 and 2 USD and 6.7 USD per 1000 impressions. Thus, Instagram is cheaper than Facebook (Instagram ads guide, 2019).
Due to the continuous evolution of the app, in 2020, it has exceeded one billion active users worldwide - 67% out of 130 million young adults (18 - 29 years old) from the US and over 2.5 million young adult users from the Czech Republic. As mentioned before, women are more active on Instagram than men. Five hundred ten million women have an Instagram account worldwide, out of which are 1.36 million women in the Czech Republic. The business also evolves. Over 75% of brands in the US actively use Instagram. The Instagram official website has a business section that helps newcomers successfully advertise their products and discover other active companies on Instagram in greater detail. The research conducted by Instagram showed that more than 60% of users discover new trends and brands through Instagram and 11% of users shop on Instagram, and 81% use Instagram to search for products and services (Omnicore, 2010).
Insta Story 1: Zalando
Instagram Stories, Insta Stories, or Stories are the most popular driver of engagement on Instagram. There is a 233% increase of viewed Stories from 2017 - 2019 worldwide, and ⅓ of viewed stories are from businesses. Stories are photos or videos that vanish 15 seconds after clicking on them and are automatically deleted 24 hours after posting, unlike a regular post on an account's feed. The image labeled as Insta Story 1:
Zalando taken from Zalando's official Instagram account is a classic example of brand marketing through stories.
Source: Instagram, 2021
At the bottom of the story, there is a "swipe up" option that takes the user to the official website of Zalando. Similar stories typically serve as a tool for announcing sales, showing a new collection, or promoting their campaign. According to scientists, they are engaging because they build suspense due to their disappearing nature and giving the audience a quick update on an object or person's life in the given moment. Furthermore, it represents one of the most vivid imitations of a shared experience. It nearly feels like the follower is snooping into someone else's life which is naturally appealing to the human eye (Anton Eliasson, 2018). One of the Instagram updates added to the new features for branded content is in Stories. Now the users may include hashtags, mentions - features that reportedly increase engagement by nearly 12%
and the possibility to add a location that gets over 79% of engagement. The increasing popularity and non-traditional aspects of Insta Stories are why the thesis will focus on them (Joshua Tresvalles, 2020).
The third social media network has one of the most significant and measurable results of site traffic. YouTube is a social media platform and a search engine due to its comprehensive content to link an individual's channel to other social networks like Facebook or Instagram.
2.3 YouTube
YouTube is a video-viewing social media service headquartered in California, US. It was created in 2005 by former PayPal employees-Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. Only in the US, the social network had almost 5 billion USD in net advertising revenues in 2019.
12% more than in 2018 and YouTube is estimated to make 5.47 billion USD by the end of 2020. The internet platform is often overlooked as a potential marketing communication tool because many people visualize it as a pure video platform without any advertising opportunities. The opposite is true. The site is the most widely used platform in the US. Over 2 billion logged-in users every month and over 500 hours of video uploaded every minute. This platform's use may be taken as an excellent opportunity to reach a wide range of audiences. Not many competitors likely use the platform because it is more complicated than uploading videos on Facebook or Instagram. However, it has better video optimization to target the audience (Jacqueline Zote, 2020).
To ease the target audience optimization, YouTube has a recommendation algorithm determining 70% of site traffic. This changes over the years; between 2005 and 2012, YouTube rewarded videos with the highest view count. Recently, the users decided what they watch based on the marginal content and brand safety. Marginal content is potentially harmful and misleading content ranging from topics about coronavirus to white supremacy and riots. The algorithm is skewed based on the individual's performance - clicks, likes, and comments, and watched videos in the past. For improved business personalization, businesses may use a device called YouTube demographics showing the fundamental trends in audience characteristics (Fergus Baird, Katie Sehl, 2020). For instance, Gen Z most likely searches for short-term and the newest audience, and 81% of American young adults prefer YouTube over cable TV. It is the second most preferred video-sharing platform after Netflix. All these statistical analyses created by YouTube facilitate marketing communication in the social media network. The most common mode of advertising on YouTube is skippable videos or display (non-skippable) ads.
Skippable ads are accessible on nearly all desktop and mobile devices, usually before the main video starts. Viewers are allowed to skip the advert after 5 seconds or click on a button that is usually displayed on the bottom left corner of the ad to learn more. Therefore, the video should attract attention and say the most important within five seconds, so the viewer takes further action.
Skippable ad 1: Zalando
The skippable ads cost an average of 10 - 30 cents per click and 10 USD per day but only if the viewer watched the whole video or clicked on a banner to learn more about the advertised product/brand (Jacqueline Zote, 2020).
Source: YouTube, 2020
The general recommendation to skippable advertising format on YouTube is to include the brand's logo at the end to minimize blind judgment of the company (YouTube, 2020).
According to the YouTube Insights Team that researched skippable ads in 2015, the video should be positive, humorous, or calming to create an emotional impact on the viewer.
However, there are no direct results on whether music positively or negatively affects YouTube users. The research in the thesis should show the general audiences' impression.
All three social media services want to encourage businesses to spend their money on their platforms' marketing communication. This is the reason why the networks provide recommendations and insights for the most effective advertising format. The suggestions are on the basis of statistical evidence, but at the same time, they are general. They also do not reflect millennials' consumer behavior in online fashion markets, which is going to be the next topic in the following chapter.
3 Consumer Behavior in Online Fashion Markets
KPMG, an international professional services network between 2016 and 2017, surveyed 18 430 customers from more than 50 countries to understand the online world's general consumer behavior. Women are more active on social media than men. However, men generally spend more money on online shopping. According to the survey, men spend on average 220 USD per transaction while women around 150 USD because men tend to buy more expensive products such as electronics online. This trend is similar between different generations. While millennials are more active online than baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1965), baby boomers worldwide spend more money per transaction by 30 USD. The reason is that
baby boomers often have more disposable income and often purchase more expensive goods such as healthcare products and household facilities. Another important aspect before purchasing a product remains to be the number on the price tag. Millennials compare prices on multiple internet channels more than baby boomers.
Moreover, when it comes to online shopping, 58% of selected customers claimed they prefer to shop online because they can do it at any time. The 2nd most crucial perk for purchasing a product online is the ability to compare prices. Even though only 23% of consumers enjoy the offline shopping experience more than online, 56% of consumers dislike seeing, touching, or trying on the product before purchasing. That is the main reason why baby boomers prefer to shop offline. Peer reviews are the most effective shopping triggers among millennials.
According to the research, peer reviews are the most common and fastest on social media platforms. Nearly 50% of surveyed millennials share feedback on their purchase on social media and with friends. (KPMG – Global Online Report, 2017).
When it comes to online fashion markets, consumers are attracted to posts/ banners that create a certain emotional stimulus. Generally, colors, action, and engaging but straightforward content attract social media users' attention. These factors usually make people take the next step and learn more details about the brand and the product. The main benefit of online is the convenience of searching for any product from home and many times at a better deal (Chayapa Katawetawaraks, 2011). However, consumer behavior is dependent on the essential demographic characteristics of the individual and their cultural differences, which is similar to offline shopping. Approximately 43% of active online people are non-English speakers. Nearly all countries and even regions have different dynamics and approaches towards online shopping (Wiebke Reie, 2017). This all means that companies still have to undergo market research to identify the customers' desires in the given country to account for cultural differences.
Personalized advertisements create an impression that each advert is made precisely for the customer. Brands must overview their customers' age, gender, education, income status, et cetera to target customers who could potentially be interested in purchasing the products. The environment of the advertised products/brand is essential to be analyzed. As younger generations such as millennials or Gen Z are more active online, they will be more interested in products sold or promoted through social media than older generations.
It is similar to gender - as mentioned, women are more active on social media, and they also buy more clothes. Hence, the principal target in social media advertising of online fashion brands will be contemporary women between 18 and 40/45 (Ana Popovic, 2020). Besides the mentioned factors, it is essential to bear in mind the possibilities social media advertising provides.
Influencer marketing is a type of marketing communication by one or more influencers.
Influencers are people who can convince others to purchase certain products through social media. The power is often built by their expertise at certain things such as fashion gurus and many followers online. Even though influencers get paid to advertise the products, they still create credibility and trust. People follow influencers who feel like they create a certain connection with each other. Similar interests, exciting content, or similar fashion taste create such a connection. Thus, influencers are used as a tool to sell a particular brand or product.
Therefore, it is essential to chose the right influencers to promote a product, as their followers may not be the ideal target audience. (Jenn Chen, 2020). Many people believe that influencer marketing is the future of marketing communication as they are more trustworthy, authentic, more personal, and less expensive for companies. Many people who go on social media look for something new, and traditional marketing ideas are often reused. Influencers usually take the time to be unique as they also want to have as many followers as possible.
Universally, brands use influencer marketing if the brand wants to target similar people at the lowest cost. They are technically offshoring the marketing communication to a paid influencer who will advertise the product online (Gaurav Sharma, 2017).
Celebrities can do similar endorsements. It does not matter if the retails are offline or online.
They all have slightly different advertising methods. The analysis of the best method for online fashion advertising in the Czech Republic is in the second half of the thesis.
4 Fashion Market in the Czech Republic
Glami, an online Czech fashion brand, annually publishes reports about Czech shopping behavior and fashion e-commerce. E-commerce revenue reported by over 40 thousand e-shops in the Czech Republic is 24.16 billion CZK from January to February in 2021. The number may look high, but it includes e-commerce of all sectors (groceries, fashion, and technology).
Yet it still makes only 13.5% of the total retail turnover (ceska e-commerce, 2021). In 2020, the Czech fashion e-commerce was 31.3 billion CZK, approximately a 14.1% increase from 2019 to 2020.
Moreover, the report forecasts to have a 28.1% growth by the end of 2023. Figure 5 shows the estimated development of the offline and online shopping turnover in the Czech Republic. The estimation is determined based on the assumption that physical shops will be reopened by the second half of 2021. Otherwise, the growth rate will be slower.
Figure 5: The Development of Online and Offline Shopping Turnover in the Czech Republic
Source: Glami.cz, 2020
Although the Czech fashion market turnover decreased by 9.83%, most significantly due to the Coronavirus pandemic, e-commerce increased in 2020 by 14.11%, which is 3% more than expected. The growth within the year 2020 dependent on the state's regulations that affect the growth of products sold online over a given period.
Growth Merchandise Value (GMV) metric calculates the growth in e-commerce, similarly to the gross revenue. It measures the total value of sales over a specific time (Adam Hayes, 2020).
During the state of emergency from November to December, the online shopping turnover has an exponential increase before GMV fluctuated between 0.6 and 1.1 from January to October, then it grew to 2.5. Nevertheless, the index fell after Christmas and Black Friday back to 1.5 (Glami 2020).
To better insight into the Czech fashion online market preferences, it is essential to identify the top players in e-commerce. According to the fashion market research by Glami in 2020, the most popular online fashion sites based on web traffic are About You with 6.3 million site visits, Zalando (4.5 million visits), and Bon Prix (3.5million visits). The annual sales revenue of all three companies in the Czech Republic is not published. However, a Czech online company named ZOOT ranked in the top 10 most popular online fashion sites based on web traffic. Zoot has nearly 886 000 visits with an average annual sales revenue of 35,1 million USD (Zoot, 2016). Therefore, it is possible to assume that About You, Zalando, and Bon Prix are over 150% more profitable (based on the site visits percentage difference). The fact that the most popular fashion shopping websites in the Czech Republic are at first glance similar. Both companies are German and operate only online (Glami, 2020). More details about their increasing popularity, marketing mix, strategy, and communication will be in the following chapters, but before it is important to introduce the paper's focus brands.
4.1 Zalando
Zalando is a German retail company operating only online. The e-company was founded in 2008 and offers their fashion and lifestyle products in 17 European markets. The online fashion store has the highest annual sales in Europe of over 9 billion USD in 2020, with approximately 77 million visits a month and over 1 billion visits in the third quarter of 2019 (Zalando corporate, 2019 & Tugba Sabanoglu, 2020). Their strategy is to focus on partners, customers, and infrastructure to achieve growth by maximizing digitization. In Europe, they have 31 million active customers and approximately 145 million orders that generated 6.5 billion EURO in revenue in 2019 (Zalando corporate, 2019). Moreover, they have many initiatives that are compelling to the ever-growing social media community. Their most recent campaign is related to sustainability and diversity. The brand continuously raises awareness of the importance of
acceptance and tolerance of others and the planet by creating a sustainable fashion infrastructure by checking the origin of the items they sell. Zalando has launched a private label Zign where the collection is famous for products made of sustainable material.
Furthermore, Zalando started a new “Offline Online project” promoting transparent, seamless local communities by connecting retail stores and influencers to grow through e-commerce (Zalando, 2020). These actions appeal to contemporary customers shopping online to the degree that the Dutch research company Veraart Research ranked Zalando as the fifth most active e-commerce by turnover in Europe across all online retail sectors. Zalando's online traffic also increased throughout the years.
Zalando's marketing campaign is specific, inspirational, and localizes its product offerings based on the target country. Most advertisements have seemingly simple and positive content and leave a message to create a more complex impression. One example could be the "bye stereotypes, hello zerotypes" campaign promoting the beauty of individuality and originality (Zalando, 2020).
Another reason why Zalando is so popular is that it targets its customers based on the country.
In the Czech Republic, it is evident that women are the primary audience. Although the brand uses a few traditional advertising methods, such as billboards, Zalando is known for its strong social media communication, primarily through Instagram and Facebook. Zalando actively uses all kinds of advertising formats, starting from Stories on Instagram, posts on Facebook and skippable ads on YouTube. In addition, the brand tries to balance its strategy to be both local and global. That is why all Facebook posts in the Czech Republic are in Czech, and most of them cannot be auto-translated, and the Instagram account is in English. In this manner, Zalando interconnects all customers worldwide, and many companies take this strategy as an example. On the other hand, Zalando's German competitor focuses more on famous influencers and celebrities rather than the campaign itself.
4.2 About You
About You was founded in 2014 in Hamburg, Germany. Even though the brand is relatively young, it is one of the fastest-growing companies in the digital world. The brand is currently active in 19 European countries, offers clothes from over 700 brands, and plans to expand even more. The brand strives to differentiate itself from others as a modern and young online company. Therefore, one of their slogans is "Bringing fashion discovery on the smartphone to the European market," symbolizing determination to expand and be available everywhere to all contemporary customers (About You, 2020).
About You is the most popular online retail store in the Czech Republic per the number of visits. Similarly to Zalando, among their competitors from the same sector in the Czech Republic are Bon Prix, Zoot, and Answear. Although About You does not release the Czech Republic's sales turnover, it has received over million orders in 2019 with a turnover of over 340 million USD (in the fiscal year 2019/2020) in Europe. Comparably to Zalando, About You offers a wide variety of branded lifestyle assortment and clothing. Their personalization strategy starts with the brand's name itself. The company yearns for a direct customer approach to make the customer's shopping experience rather than anything else. Unlike Zalando, the online retail store focuses on social media advertising and cooperation with influencers or celebrities. For example, About You released an advertisement with Karolina Kurková, a Czech model and actress walking around Prague in different outfits, or a famous Czech singer, Milan Peroutka, who regularly gives out promo codes with discounts to his Instagram followers. In the Czech Republic, both About You’s Instagram and Facebook accounts are in the Czech language. This makes the adverts look more local and personalized. The Facebook page is generally product and discount-oriented. The YouTube skippable ads and Instagram promote the newest trends and the outfits are mostly worn by celebrities. Moreover, their signature advertising method is online fashion shows in Insta stories that are freely available to the public.
Both Zalando and About You are highly profitable fashion e-shops with a solid brand reputation and awareness. Although Zalando has more followers on both Instagram and Facebook by approx. 5.8 million, the research methodology part of the paper should reveal current data of opinions about selected advertisements from YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram and provide recommendations to the current or potential fashion e-commerce companies on effectively using commercial communication in the online world.
5 Consumers’ Attitudes Towards Social Media Communication
This chapter moves the thesis from a theoretical to a practical part that focuses on selected social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube) and their marketing communication of Zalando and About You. The practical part is in the form of survey and as already mentioned, millennials between 18 and 45 who do not work for any marketing or market research company and live in the Czech Republic are the target group.
The research aims to discover attitudes towards selected advertisements on social media platforms from a perspective of a millennial customer.
5.1 Quantitative Research
Quantitative analysis is a pivotal part of the thesis. The purpose is to add information to the theoretical part and answer the following research questions from a first-hand perspective. The following questions represent a framework and the direction of the questionnaire.
General Questions:
• Are consumers of various demographic characteristics who use social media (Youtube/Instagram/Facebook) influenced differently if the advertisements are pictures or videos?
Questions Related to the Particular Brands:
• How successful among potential customers are online fashion companies (Zalando and About You) in advertising their brand – is a campaign with an "emotional message"
more successful than a celebrity endorsement?
• How selected social media advertisements and communication created by Zalando &
About You affect customers' purchase decisions?
• What social media network communication is the most efficient in particular fashion brands to increase willingness to buy their product?
5.2 Research Methodology
The quantitative research is conducted online in the form of a questionnaire. This type of methodology is a flexible way to analyze behavior and opinions to incorporate personal experiences. Quantitative research is also limiting as most answers to the questions are pre-set, urging the respondents to answer from the selection rather than saying their genuine opinion.
Although it is possible to include open-ended questions, the quantitative analysis is still less detailed, unlike qualitative research. It is generally based on numerical responses with minimum insight into the respondent's understanding and thinking (Jason Mander, 2017).
This primary research collects primary data that are processed, analyzed, and interpreted solely for this academic work. Data collection for this work occurs in a questionnaire created in the online tool "Google Forms." When the respondents receive an invitation to complete the online questionnaire whenever they have time, and all responses to individual questions are represented in graphs. The results are presented as a recommendation based on respondents' preferred advertising technique and superior commercial communication through social media and their role in influencing potential customers (based on their demographic characteristics - age & gender) in favor to visit Zalando or About You's webpage and purchase the brand's products. Moreover, the results can be used for various marketing situations into which online brands in today's digitized world may easily connect with potential customers through social networks.
The data collection took place from February 22 to March 21, 2021, on a sample of 120 respondents from Czechs and foreigners who ever lived in Czechia. The respondents were selected online from multiple social media channels dedicated for University or high school students. The survey was in the form of inquiry with an intentional selection of respondents.
The respondents selected by the interviewer were contacted, and then a questionnaire was sent to them. As mentioned above, data collection took place in Google Form. It is an administrative software where respondents can fill in the questionnaire when they have time and the interviewer anonymously obtains online results that are automatically visualized in graphs.
The questionnaire contains mostly closed questions with a predominance of single or multiple- choice questions. If the respondent does not agree with any possibility, they may choose the option "other" and state a different answer. The survey is also split into five sections. The first screening section disqualifies respondents who are not Facebook, Instagram users or do not
watch videos on YouTube. Respondents who work in a marketing research or marketing company are excluded from the research, so their answers do not distort the research results due to the respondents' professional approach. Out of 120 respondents, 19 responses are eliminated.
The following three sections are related to the online stores About You and Zalando and social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Each section shows an advertisement from About You and Zalando from one of the mentioned social media platforms. The particular questions unite the respondent's opinions and attitudes towards the adverts. The last identification section serves based on showing demographic and geographic characteristics of each respondent. The identification section is helpful to compare the answers from the previous sections to their basic attributes.
It was piloted on eight students that verified the survey's comprehensibility before it was send out. The entire questionnaire is in Appendix 1.
5.3 Socio-Demographic Profile of The Respondents
As already mentioned, the analysis is based on 101 respondents between the age of 18 and 45 who do not work for a marketing or market research company and use all 3 mentioned networks. The following parts of the thesis summarize the results of the research from the relevant respondents.
Regarding socio-demographic characteristics, the focus group is women as both online shops predominantly target female customers in their marketing strategy. Hence the majority of respondents (71.3%) are females. Although the target group is women, each e-commerce sells clothing for both men and women. Thus, men may also shop in the fashion brands and contribute with valuable opinions to the research. For that reason, men were not excluded. The following Figure 6 illustrates the gender distribution of the survey.
Figure 6: Respondents Based on Gender
Source: Own Research
From the distribution, ten respondents are Czechs, and the rest are Czech residents. Withal, 97% of the respondents between the age 18 and 35, obtained at least a high school diploma or bachelor's degree, and the rest is up to the age of 45. Figure 7 shows the age distribution of the respondents.
Figure 7: Age Distribution
Source: Own Research
Out of the whole group of respondents, 76.2% have either a high school diploma or bachelor’s degree in terms of the highest level of completed education. 13.9% master’s or Ph.D., and the rest (10 people) has stopped their studies after finishing secondary school. Figure 8 displays a graphical summary of respondents’ highest educational attainment in percentages.
Figure 8: Respondents’ Highest Level of Completed Education
Source: Own Research
Lastly, the socio–demographic section asked questions regarding the size of the respondent's household and their household's income level. Figure 9 highlights the composition of the respondents' size of their household.
Figure 9: Respondents Based on the Size of Their Household
Source: Own Research
It is visible that the majority is either in a household of 3-4 people or a maximum of 2. A more extensive household naturally tends to have a higher income. However, it is also vaguely dependent on the highest level of attainted education and the respondent‘s age. In general, students obtain a lower income than fully employed, older individuals. The comparison of respondents' income level is in the following Figure 10.
Figure 10: Monthly Income Level per Household
Source: Own Research
Based on the figure, 60% has an income level from 30 000 to 70 000+ CZK per month and 40% below 20 000 CZK. In the next research, it may also be interesting to let respondents define what their household looks like and whether the students live with their families. This kind of information is helpful as it affects the customers' shopping behavior and how many products they are willing to purchase.
5.4 Consumer Perception on Social Media Advertising
This chapter reveals the results from the content sections of the questionnaire. As already mentioned, the questionnaire consists of 5 sections. Besides the screening and socio- demographic, the other three are content sections. The first content section is about personal perception and attitudes about social media advertising and online shopping. The second, third and fourth content sections are related to advertisement reactions of concrete posts published by Zalando and About You on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. To find out what advertisements and social media platforms are preferable to the respondents, sections 2, 3, and 4 consist of the same questions. The only changing variables of the sections were the adverts and social media platforms of both e-companies.
The first content section is important to learn the respondents' relation to social media and advertisements on online advertising. Figure 11 represents approximately how much time respondents spend on social media. The higher the frequency of social media usage, the higher the probability of seeing online adverts, and potentially making a purchase online.
Figure 11: Frequency of Social Media Usage
Source: Own Research
According to the figure, the vast majority is always active on social media or uses it several times a day. Six respondents are active only once a day, and one respondent is active once a month. Therefore, most respondents likely see multiple online advertisements every day.
The next question in the questionnaire asks whether the respondents shop clothes online.
Although 68 respondents (67.3%) prefer to go to physical fashion stores because they generally like to try clothes on before making a purchase, most of them (81.2%) still shop online. The reasons for online shopping, according to the respondents, is the possibility to shop 24/7 and easiness to compare different products and brands online. Therefore, it is imaginable to assume that many of the respondents visited or purchased products from a company that advertises its products on social media. Figure 12 confirms this assumption.
Figure 12: Respondents’ Behavior After Seeing an Ad on Social Media
Source: Own Research
Figure 12 shows that a significant bulk of the respondents bought or at least planned to buy products from the advertisements they have seen on social media. At the same time, 41.6% of respondents claim that they learned more information about the advertised product or brand but never purchased anything after seeing an ad online. The percentage means, be that as it may, for 42 surveyed people, the online advertisements are seemingly more appealing than the actual product offer.
The respondents who shopped or visited a brand after seeing an online advert recall all kinds of advertisements from many different fashion stores. Nevertheless, most of them remember adverts that are well edited, emotional, humorous or original and most Czech respondents do not mind if the advert is in Czech or English.
Figure 13 reveals that 48.5% of the respondents believe the most appealing adverts are about the product of their interest and 26.7% about the seasonal discounts. Thus, the majority thinks the advertised products influence them more than the brand.
Figure 13: The Most Appealing Type of Advertisements
Source: Own Research
Whether the products or the brands truly influence the respondents will be visible on two selected e-commerce - Zalando and About. Before conducting detailed research about the brands, it is important to know respondents’ familiarity with the online brands. However, the respondents who do not know the brands are also included the survey as they can still contribute to the research with their opinions about the selected advertisement of both brands. Figure 14 shows how well-known the brands are to the respondents.
Figure 14: Respondents’ Familiarity with Zalando and About You
Source: Own Research
According to the figure, the minority (29.7%) never heard of either brand, which means that from the group of respondents, both Zalando and About You have a relatively high brand awareness. Natheless, 30.7% of the people participating in the survey never shopped at the brands’ websites. Wherefore, only 39.6% of respondents made at least one purchase at Zalando and About You. It might also be interesting to find in another research why most participants who buy clothes online do not shop at either of the two brands.
In the following content chapters, the research's focal point is on the selected advertisements published by Zalando and About You on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
5.4.1 YouTube
The first section compares skippable ads created by Zalando and About You that were published on YouTube. As already mentioned, About You endorses celebrities. Skippable Ad 2 shows Karolina Kurkova, a former Czech top model, who walks around Prague's center in different outfits. On the other hand, Zalando's campaign in Skippable Ad 1 conveys a message about minimizing stereotypes, promoting togetherness, diversity, and freedom by features of male models wearing bright pink outfits or older women in clubbing fits. The following pictures are the skippable ads of both companies used in the questionnaire.
Skippable Ad 2: About You Skippable Ad 3: Zalando
Source: YouTube, 2020 Source: YouTube, 2020
The first question concerns the familiarity of chosen ads. The question shows the overall reach of the ads. The result of the questionnaire is visible in Figure 15.
Figure 15: Familiarity of the Selected Skippable Ads
Source: Own Research
The figure shows that the majority has seen neither ad. Zalando has a slightly higher reach, by 2% in relative terms. Nevertheless, 48.5% of the respondents have not searched for more information or went on either of the brand's websites after seeing the adverts. The main reason stated from most respondents was that they were not interested in the offered assortment or they are not fans of the particular brands. The percentual distribution of making the next step after seeing the adverts is shown in Figure 16.
Figure 16: Making a next step after having seen the adverts
Source: Own Research
Even though the vast minority (8.9%) have not searched for more information, the majority selected that the advertisements caught their interest. More percentual information about the advertisements’ preferences is in Figure 17 and Figure 18 where the respondents selected if they would ever consider visiting each company’s website based on the advert’s appeal.
Figure 17: The Probability of Searching for More Info After Seeing About You’s Ad
Source: Own Research
Figure 18: The Probability of Searching for More Info After Seeing Zalando’s Ad
Source: Own Research
Figure 18 shows that the probability the respondent will visit Zalando’s website after seeing the skippable ad is nearly 50% which is a higher chance than the respondent’s visit of About You’s skippable by exactly 10.9% (4 respondents). This also implies that Zalando is overall a preferred advertisement. Specifically, 59.4% of the respondents, including those who have seen
the adverts in the questionnaire for the first time, selected Zalando as a preferred ad due to its colorful and more favorable flow of the video. The preferences are shown in Figure 19.
Figure 19: Preferred Ad
Source: Own Research
The general advertisement appeal of both brands is highlighted in Figure 20. This shall show what elements the respondents’ rate highly in skippable ads. The figure demonstrates that both advertisements are captivating and only 22.8% did not find the videos interesting.
Figure 20: Advertisements’ Appeal
Source: Own Research
The figure also shows that 26.7% are interested more in the brands than the products, which implies that the brands’ skippable ads intention was not entirely to advertise the clothes but to create an overall positive impression to the audience. As a result of which, out of the selected group, over 50% of respondents would not visit either of the brands' websites after seeing the adverts because the products were not found appealing.
The same questions were asked for Facebook and Instagram that have shown slightly different attitudes towards the selected advertisements.
5.4.2 Facebook
After YouTube, the questionnaire moves to a section concerning Zalando and About You image ads taken from Facebook. About 4% of the respondents follow Zalando, and 3% follow About You on Facebook because they either frequently shop there. Unfortunately, most respondents do not follow either of the brands on this social media platform. Therefore, it is believable to assume the preponderance has never seen the ads before. The image ads are shown below under Image Ad 2 and Image Ad 3. Both Image Ads have captions in the Czech language because the advertisements are often adapted to the person's physical location. The caption of Zalando's ad says: "Before: I will wear this in Krkonoše (mountain located in the Czech - Polish borders), Now: Yes, I will wear this once I go sledding to the Stromovka park." About You's caption in Image 3 says: "The new collection from Leger by Lena Gercke, focused on natural beauty, Lena once again shows us her love for classic pieces, but this time with a modern flair."
Image Ad 2: Zalando Image Ad 3: About You
Source: Facebook, 2021 Source: Facebook, 2021
As can be seen from the captions, About You once again endorsers a famous fashion model while Zalando applies funny and creative elements to its post’s caption. Ergo, the respondents may find Zalando’s post more engaging if they are not familiar with the model advertised on About You. This hypothesis was proven as Zalando was found more preferable than About You by 10%. This is shown in Figure 21.
Figure 21: Respondents’ preferred advert
Source: Own Research
