What influence do the completeness of verbal anchoring and the tolerance of ambiguity have on the consumer response in Dutch and Hungarian cultures regarding charity logos?

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the degree of verbal anchoring on the consumer response for Dutch and Hungarian participants regarding charity logos. Previous research found that verbal anchoring can help to better understand an image and provoke a more positive attitude towards the ad (Philips, 2000; Bergvist et al., 2012; Knowles et al., 2012; Kohli et al., 2013). The degree of tolerance of ambiguity in cultures might have an influence on how consumers perceive a message. Therefore, this was also interesting to study because it might be relevant to help explain the consumers’ attitude and donation intention behaviour towards the charities and their logos. For that reason, the research question of this study was: What influence do the completeness of verbal anchoring and the tolerance of ambiguity have on the consumer response in Dutch and Hungarian cultures regarding charity logos? To find an answer to this research question, an experiment was carried out among a Dutch and a Hungarian sample. The subjects had to fill in a questionnaire and were randomly exposed to the logos of World Wide Fund and SOS Children’s’ Villages containing no verbal anchoring, the logo with the company name or the logo including the company name and the slogan. Findings showed that there were no significant results for the completeness of verbal anchoring and the consumer response regarding charity logos. Furthermore, there was a significant main effect for nationality but no effect for the tolerance of ambiguity.