A Study into the Role and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness with Specific Reference to the Turkish Airlines Case Study

THIS DISSERTATION IS SUBMITTED TO THE MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN
UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARDS OF MASTER OF INTERNATIONAL CREATIVE ADVERTISING
A Study into the Role and Effectiveness of Advertising
on Brand Awareness with Specific Reference to the
Turkish Airlines Case Study.
Şebnem Kavcin
StudentID: 10975608
MARCH, 2012

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DECLARATION
The author of this dissertation, whilst being registered for the Masters award, has not
been a registered candidate for another award of a university.
No material in this dissertation has been used in any other submission for an
academic award.
This research has been conducted in an ethical manner in accordance with the
University‟s Ethical Framework.

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ABSTRACT
Over the years, the role of advertising has been tried to analyse by many researchers
and several studies are carried out to measure the advertising effectiveness on brand
awareness which will lead marketing managers to make intelligent decisions about
their brands and advertising strategies. This study will focus on these issues with a
specific reference to Turkish Airlines‟ TV advertisement with Manchester United
football team and advertising strategies in general, in order to achieve brand
awareness in local and the global scale.
To explore and evaluate these issues, an extensive literature review was undertaken
to identify significant frameworks. This was complemented by a survey (both in
English and in Turkish) and an interview with the Advertising Manager of Turkish
Airlines.
The survey was carried out with 104 international and 237 national people and they
have been asked several questions about their knowledge of Turkish Airlines and the
TV ad of the company, aiming to investigate whether they are aware of the company
and their TV ad, and to what extent they benefit from the advertisement before they
make a purchasing decision. The focus of the questions are mainly on participants‟
(as consumers) knowledge of the brand, their thoughts about the brand image and
their perception of the brand.
To understand Turkish Airlines‟ advertising strategies better and to be able to
evaluate them with the related literature, an interview with the Advertising Manager is
conducted. He has been asked about the company‟s objectives and strategies both in
local and global perspective.
The outcomes of the survey and the interview helped to measure whether the
company objectives have been achieved and its strategy has been successful in
terms of creating and developing brand awareness.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Research Context
1.1 The Role and effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness and its
measurement ………………………………………………………..................8
1.2 Sport Sponsorship as a Global Advertising Strategy...................................12
1.3 Turkish Airlines ............................................................................................13
1.4 Research Aim................................................................................................21
1.5 Research Objectives......................................................................................21
2. Literature Review
2.1 The Role and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness..................22
2.1.1 How Advertising Works........................................................................22
2.1.1.1 Hierarchy of Effect Models From Traditional to the Recent ..........22
2.1.2 Measuring the Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness......26
2.1.2.1 What is Brand Awareness?............................................................27
2.1.2.1.1 Relevance to the Brand Knowledge and Brand Image.....27
2.1.2.1.2 Recognition and Recall......................................................27
2.1.2.2 The Effects of Advertising .............................................................29
2.1.2.2.1 Measurement of Effects.....................................................30
2.1.3 Sponsorship as a Global Advertising Strategy.....................................32
2.1.3.1 Global Advertising Strategy.............................................................32
2.1.3.2 Sport Sponsorships.........................................................................33
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Conceptual Framework......................................................................................35
3.1.1 Empirical Study......................................................................................35
3.1.2 Research Design....................................................................................35
3.1.3 Realist Research Philosophy..................................................................36
3.1.4 Deductive and Inductive Research Theory............................................37
3.1.5 Case Study.............................................................................................37
3.1.6 Time Horizons.........................................................................................38
3.2 Secondary Data Collection.................................................................................38
3.3 Primary Data Collection......................................................................................39
3.3.1 Mixed Method Research.........................................................................39
3.3.1.1 Mixind the Data.................................................................................40

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3.3.1.2 Sequential Design..........................................................................41
3.3.2 Semi-Structured Interview....................................................................41
3.3.2.1 Advantages....................................................................................42
3.3.3 Online Survey.......................................................................................42
3.3.3.1 Sources of Distribution...................................................................42
3.3.3.2 Advantages....................................................................................44
3.3.3.3 Disadvantages...............................................................................44
3.3.3.4 Survey Design................................................................................47
3.3.4 Sampling..............................................................................................48
3.3.4.1 Probability Sampling......................................................................48
3.3.4.2 Cluster Sampling Technique..........................................................48
3.3.4.3 Sample Frame...............................................................................49
3.3.4.4 Data Analysis Methods..................................................................49
4. Results
4.1 Questionnaire Results.....................................................................................50
5. Findings Analysis
5.1 Semi-structured Interview Analysis..................................................................58
5.2 Online Survey Findings and Analysis...............................................................61
5.3 Mixed Findings Analysis...................................................................................65
6. Conclusion
6.1 Recommendations...........................................................................................65
6.1.1 Turkish Airlines Brand Awareness and Advertising Strategy..............65
6.2 Areas of Future Research................................................................................67
7. Appendices............................................................................................................68
7.1 Copy of English questionnaire.........................................................................68
7.2 Copy of Turkish Questionnaire........................................................................68
7.3 Overall Results of Turkish Questionnaire........................................................74
8. References............................................................................................................81
List of Figures and Tables

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Research Context
1.1-1 The AIDA Model of Advertising Persuasion
1.1-2 Lavidge and Steiner‟s Model of Advertising Process
1.1-3 Colley‟s Hierarchy of Effects Model
1.3-1 The Network Coverage of Europe‟s Biggest Flag Carriers
1.3-2 FC Barcelona and Manchester United Poster Ads
1.3-3 FC Barcelona Poster
1.3-4 Manchester United Poster
1.3-5 Shakhtar Donetsk Jersey
1.3-6 Ladies Open Poster Ad
1.3-7 Turkish Airlines Brand Appearance
1.3-8 Kobe Bryant Poster Ad
Literature Review
2.1-1 Lavidge and Steiner Traditional Order Hierarchy of Effects
2.1-2 A Summary of Popular Hierarchy Models Preceding the Lavidge-Stenier model
2.1-3 Facets Model of Effects
2.1-4 Measures of Advertising Effect
2.1-5 Steps in a Hierarchal Model
Research Methodology
3.1-1 Research Onion
3.1-2 Deductive Approach versus Inductive Approach
3.3-1 Three Ways of Mixing Quantitative and Qualitative
3.3-2 Survey Results Distribution
3.3-3 Sources of Distribution
3.3-4 Strengths and Potential Weaknesses of Online Surveys
Findings Analysis
5.1-1 Turkish Airlines Red Globe

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It is a pleasure to thank those who made this research possible with their support and
infinite believe in me. This dissertation would not have been possible unless they did
not stay by my side during this study.
In particular, I would like to mention Jamal Abuzant and Serdar Ekrem Şirin for their
contributions, and my family for their encouragement and patience which have proved
invaluable in writing up my research.
Above all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Rod Humphreys, for his guidance and
feedback throughout the research process.

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1. Research Context
1.1 The Role and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness and Its
Measurement
Advertising is fundamentally defined by Yeshin as “any form of paid-for media used
by the marketer to communicate with his target audience”, (2006). Connor (1968)
furthered this by noting that it is “one of the tools--within the marketing kit, and one
with no independent existence.” Ziauddin Sardar notes (2002),
“From the day we are born to the day we die, we hear, read, see over million
advertisements. Advertisement is everything. It is the air we breathe, the matrix within
which we exist.”
Considering the significance and the investments on this communication tool, it is vital
for a business to fully comprehend the role of advertising and if the advertising is
working. Jones (1999) observes the role of advertising as „aiding sales‟ and stresses
that advertising plays a role in four main ways such as; “creating awareness,
providing essential information, helping to build a relevant brand image (and, once the
brand has become more or less established), and acting as a regular reminder to try,
buy, or use the brand.” Concordantly, Young‟s simple five-part model identifies how
advertising works, as;
 By familiarizing
 By reminding
 By spreading news
 By overcoming inertia
 By adding value not in the product (Jones, 1999)
The primary role of advertising can be seen as „to communicate the desired
positioning for the brand from the start. Once the brand is established, the advertising
is much more concerned with ensuring the positioning becomes fully part of the target
audience‟s mental furniture, with appropriate imagery and associations.” suggested
by Jones (1999). The role of advertising is mostly linked with the persuasion period of
an ad campaign. Considering the suggestions, it can be deduced that the matter
regarding the effectiveness of advertising is the response of customers; furthermore,
this response is directly linked with persuasiveness.
Brand awareness is considered as one of the consumer responses through
advertisement. It simply deals with how well the advertisements are remembered by

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the consumers, and how aware they are of the business and products of a company.
Furthermore, it is a crucial part of a company‟s marketing activities by means of
making the brand different from the other similar products of the competitors in the
market. (Gustafson and Chabot, 2007)
Brand awareness has two components;
1. Recognition, which is related to the process of perceiving of a brand (Hoyer
and Brown, 1990)
2. Recall, which is related to the retrieval of the brand from memory when a clue
such as product category or some other type of probe is given. (Keller, 2007)
Jones characterises brand awareness as it “has a long pedigree as a desired
outcome of marketing activity, deriving from the very earliest models of advertising
effectiveness models such as AIDA (1999). The first of the hierarchy-of-models „AIDA‟
dates back to 1898. (Ambler, 1998).
Figure 1.1-1 The A-I-D-A model of advertising persuasion (Hackley, 2010)
Hackley highlights that „when the A-I-D-A model is conceived in terms of mass
communication to thousands or millions of potential consumers through advertising,
this process can be seen in terms of a gradual and incremental effect.‟ (2010). Apart
from the AIDA model, many other models were designed to explain the role and
impact of advertising on the viewer and the hierarchy of effects that result.
Another model suggesting the process of advertising is Lavidge and Steiner‟s model
which can be viewed in figure 1.1-2. According to this model, „the receiver of the
advertising message must pass through a series of distinct stages in a defined
sequence in order to ensure a purchase of the product or service that is being
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action

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Awareness
advertised‟ and it has been implied by this model that each stage should be gone
through otherwise „the outcome will not be achieved.‟ (Yeshin, 2006)
Figure 1.1-2 Lavidge and Steiner‟s model of advertising process (1961) (Yeshin,
2006)
A new approach to advertising planning followed by Russell Colley in the early 1960s,
which is entitled „defining advertising goals for measured advertising results‟.(can be
viewed in figure 1.1-3) It is often referred by the acronym DAGMAR. (Yeshin, 2006)
Knowledge
Liking
Preference
Conviction
Purchase
Unawareness
Awareness
Comprehension
Conviction
Action

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Figure 1.1-3 Colley‟s hierarchy of effects model (Yeshin, 2006)
Yeshin stresses that “an imperative of the approach was to ensure that the objectives
established were capable of unbiased measurement. This is not simply a question of,
for example, quantifying levels of awareness, or of trial, but rather of defining precise
levels to be achieved for specific aspects of comprehension of the message” (2006).
From this point of view, it may be concluded that advertisers have a lot of work to do
to compete for the consumers‟ attentions to create brand awareness in particular and
maintain it on a desired level. Hackley (2010) stresses that once the consumers‟
attention has been taken, „it may take many more exposures, or even many more
campaigns, to elicit our interest, evoke our desire for the brand, and finally to provoke
consumers into actually acting on the message by purchasing the advertised brand.‟
This implies that the effects of advertising campaigns also should be taken into
consideration while talking about the effects of advertising campaigns in terms of
brand awareness as a response in return. On the other hand, Hackley (2010) states
that “advertising simply places a brand in the consumer‟s awareness in association
with certain contrived values and qualities. In this weak role, advertising may portray
brands in persuasive ways but their main task is not persuasive: it is to provide
reassurance.”
A study conducted by Park, Roth and Jacques (1988) explores that there are three
significant effects of advertising. These are;
1. Direct communication effects, that is believed to progressively affect purchase
decisions by creating brand level awareness and interest,
2. Indirect communication effects, which is linked with word-of mouth
communications, might have substantial market impact.
3. Indirect sales facilitated effects which might be achieved through either direct or
indirect communication effects. (Park, Roth and Jacques, 1988)
If the return on advertising expenditures in terms of sales and potential increase in
awareness and consideration are not known, allocating a budget to advertising
appropriately will be difficult (Franses and Vriens, 2004). Therefore, „what‟s and
„how‟s of advertising business are trying to be measured considering different
variables, in order not to waste the money invested. (Eldridge, 1958; Feldwick, 2002;
Heath and Nairn, 2005; Hackley, 2010) Although there is still much debate over the
measurement of effectiveness in advertising, “consumer responses can‟t tell us much
that sales solely generally can‟t, about how advertising is working or not” (Feldwick,
2002).

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In order to be able to measure the effectiveness, questions such as;
-Who is being influenced by the advertising?
-What are they noticing or remembering about it?
-How are their perceptions of the brand changing?” should be asked. (Feldwick,
2002)
The measures such as „survey data, focus groups and success using metrics‟ which
have been used for years have not changed although the knowledge gained on how
advertising works have changed substantially. (Heath and Nairn, 2005) When
customers are exposed to a product from different brands, they often choose the one
they „have heard and can recall without any effort‟. (Hackley, 2010) Some of the
measurements in advertising effectiveness include; „recall of advertising‟,
„communication of advertising‟, „perceptions of the brand‟, „consumer buying
behaviour‟ and „sales‟. (Feldwick, 2002)
1.2 Sport sponsorship and celebrity as a global advertising strategies
Global advertising works when there are global consumers or global communities out
there with universal values (De Mooij, 2004). The strategy should be considered well,
not to fail in creating international brand image and awareness. Advertising strategy
may vary considering the local and global scenes for the reason that the values and
behaviours of consumers‟ vary across cultures, and global standardized advertising is
not equally effective in all markets. The quote in Financial Times, by Coca Cola‟s
CEO, Douglas Daft „We need to make our advertising as relevant as possible to the
local market‟ as; “this approach is a better way to control the marketing process than
exporting universal values to global publics without knowing what the takeout will be.”
(De Mooij, 2004) Thus, the strategies and structure of ad campaigns should be
relevant to the appropriate demographics of countries, and campaigns should be
localized with an insight of understanding for local consumer behaviours.
Many researchers investigate sponsorship effectiveness in various directions,
including sponsor memorisation, impact on brand equity, buying intentions; and
amongst these sponsor objectives, memorisation and awareness rank as the most
important ones (Herrmann, Walliser, Kacha, 2011). In particular, „Sports sponsorship‟
and all activities related to them have become the most common practices of
marketing communications recently. For this reason, it is essential to examine the

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communication strategies and determine relevant practices in terms of the future
value of the brand and the attribution. (Demir and Kızıldağ, 2008)
1.3 Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines is Turkey‟s national flag carrier airline company since 1933. The
company presents itself as „The new star of global airline business‟ in their
presentation movie on Turkish Airlines website. In the movie, they also mention that,
Turkish Airlines is an airline;
-that takes over 25 million people to more than 160 countries around the world,
-that is operating one of the youngest fleets with more than 150 aircraft,
-that serves the best food on board with %93 customer satisfaction,
-that is a Star Alliance member (that can take you to more than 1060 cities by means
of Star Allience membership,
-that is a 4 star value carrier.
The company has received three Skytrax 2010 Awards which are considered the
Oscars for the airline business. (World Online Awards, 2010) The categories are:
1. „World‟s best economy class onboard catering‟,
2. „The best airline of Southern Europe‟
3. „The third-best airline of Europe‟. (World Airline Awards, 2010)
In 2010 Turkish Airlines has taken the lead in Europe in terms of the network
coverage as shown in figure 1.3-1

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Figure 1.3-1 the network coverage of Europe‟s biggest flag carriers (Turkish News,
2011)
Later in 2011, the company received „The best airline award in Europe‟ at the Skytrax
2011 Awards. (World Airline Awards, 2011)
Turkish Airlines‟ advertising budget was 5 million US Dollars in 2005. The company
increased the budget to 70 million US Dollars by 2010. In this 5 years time, the rate of
transfer passenger increase is %450 which is considered by the CEO of Turkish
Airlines, Temel Kotil, as a result of advertising. In an interview he also highlights that
the company obtains approximately 60% of its profit from the international sales (Net
Haberci, 2010). Thus, in order to increase the international sales an effective
communication with global customers was needed. Therefore, the company built its
advertising strategy mainly on reaching global costumers and making them aware of
the brand, and for the locals, sponsorship agreements and promotions carried on.
In order to increase brand awareness the company mainly prefers sport
sponsorships. Depending upon this strategy, Turkish Airlines signed an approximately
16.7M (total) Euro sponsorship agreement with FC Barcelona and Manchester United
football Clubs, which are very well known and have a great number of supporters
from all over the world (Hürriyet, 2011). Turkish airlines is going to carry these teams‟
football players; Manchester United for 3,5 years and FC Barcelona for 2,5 years
(Turkish Airlines, 2011).

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Figure 1.3-2 FC Barcelona & Manchester United poster ads
According to the sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona, Turkish Airlines logo and
advertisements will take place in all of Barcelona channels, (including Nou Camp
which is their football stadium) in addition to being the official airline to transport the
players to the tournaments and training camps as well, commercial films will be made
with the players of Barcelona. (Eturbonews, 2010)
With the Manchester United sponsorship deal, Turkish Airlines will fly the team to all
games and tournaments abroad and will put up Turkish Airlines logo and advertising
boards around the Manchester United‟s Stadium: Old Trafford. (Eturbonews, 2010)
These two big football teams have distinctive brand personalities as sport
organisations which will promote increasing the Turkish Airlines‟ brand perception,
changing the brand perspective, eliminating safety hesitancies by carrying FC
Barcelona (in figure 1.3-3) and Manchester United teams (in figure 1.3-4) and
increasing the employee motivation. (Küçükerdoğan, Zeybek and Ekin, 2011)

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Figure 1.3-3 FC Barcelona poster (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
Figure 1.3-4 Manchester United poster (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
Additionally, Turkish Airlines has signed official sponsorship agreement with one of
the Ukraine‟s well known football teams, FC Shakhtar Donetsk in March 2011.

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According to the agreement, the logo of the company will feature on the back of the
team sportswear (can be seen in Figure 1.3-5), club website and in the Donbass
Arena Stadium for 1.5 years. Shortly after, they have launched the 7th
flight point in
Ukraine which will start to operate in March 2012. (Utiad, 2011)
Figure 1.3-5 Shakhtar Donetsk jersey (Milliyet, 2011)
Additionally, Turkish Airlines is also supporting basketball and other sport activities
such as tennis with the national and international sponsorship agreements. These
sponsorships are:
 2010 Ladies Open golf tournament in Antalya – Turkey of which the poster ad
can be viewed in figure 1.4-5

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Figure 1.3-6 Ladies Open ad poster
 Greek basketball team Maroussi (main sponsor for 1,5 years).
Within the scope of the deal, the logo will feature on team players‟ jerseys
during the games in Greece and Euroleague. The logo will also appear „on the
boards in the court, during official press conferences, website and interviews
board and it will take a prominent position. (Küçükerdoğan, Zeybek and Ekin,
2011) p.43!!
 Europe‟s basketball League is named „Turkish Airlines Euroleague‟ in 2010
and 2011. (Figure 1.3-7)
Euroleague games were watched by approximately 950 million people in all
over the world, being featured in approximately 200 countries within and out
Europe. The official website has approximately 2 million followers and the
games are mentioned in about 100 country newspapers. (Turkish Airlines,
2010)
 2 years sponsorship deal with Kobe Bryant. (They also shot a 60 second TV
ad with him) the poster can be viewed in figure 1.4-7
On Forbes website, which is a source for business news and financial
information, Kobe Bryant was listed as no 14 on „World‟s top 100 most valued
celebrities‟. Moreover, he is listed no 24 in TV/ Radio, no 14 in press, no 18 in
social and no 34 in web. (Forbes, 2011)
 Turkish Airlines has chosen the Danish tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki, as
the face of their business class for three years. Wozniacki „appeals to tennis fans in
particular and to sports fans in general primarily in Turkish Airlines‟ brand
communication efforts in Europe.‟ (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
 Turkish Airlines is also the main sponsor of the Turkish National Basketball
Team. It was the transportation sponsor for „Shop&Miles Sailing Cup 2010‟ (which
took place in Bodrum – Turkey), was the official transportation sponsor for the „32nd
Intercontinental İstanbul Eurasia Marathon‟ (which is „the most important international
marathon event held in Turkey and attracts hundreds of thousands of runners and
spectators every year‟.), was a sponsor for the „46th Presidential Cycling Tour of

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Brand appearance in the court Turkish Airlines Euroleague logo
(Air News Time, 2010)
(Futbolingo, 2010)
Turkish Airlines Final Four 2011 logo Turkish Airlines Final Four 2012 logo
(Euroleague, 2011) (Euroleague, 2012)

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Figure 1.3-7 Turkish Airlines brand appearance / Euroleague – Final Four and 2010-
2011 logos
Figure 1.3-8 Kobe Bryant poster ad (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
 Turkey‟ in 2010, which is one of the most prestigious annual bicycle races in
the Turkey (Turkish Airlines, 2010).
In their official website, it is clearly underlined that these global sponsorship activities
are aiming to develop brand awareness. Worldwide sponsorship activities constitute
the company‟s general strategies as the main goal is being a global brand. When
there is a need for raising awareness in particular segments, they define and choose
the form of sports that most captures the attention of each target group. When brand
loyalty and choice need to be strengthened in specific areas, „testimonials are
solicited from the most prestigious individuals and teams.‟ (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
Why they decide to make use of sponsorships predominantly is explained on the
company website as, 'sports have an impact on the target audience'. They carry on
giving an example of Euroleague sponsorships as they find it highly beneficial in the
European market. Also, the sponsorship of FC Barcelona and Manchester United,
referred to as „two of the world‟s biggest sport brands‟ are a major success.

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Furthermore, it is also mentioned the target of the tennis and golf sponsorships as
„potential Business Class passengers' and they are also „contributing towards
perceptions of the airline as a prestigious name‟. In other words, these agreements
are giving the airline an international platform and they make the Turkish Airlines
name known. (Turkish Airlines, 2010)
1.5 Research Aim
This study will be an attempt to understand the role of advertising and advertising
effectiveness on brand awareness. A case study of Turkish Airlines will be the core of
this study in order to understand and evaluate the advertising strategies of the
company. In conclusion, this study will determine how these strategies work on
building brand awareness on local and global scales, and if they are effective enough
and if so, how?
1.6 Research Objectives
1st
objective: To critically analyse how advertising works and how effective it is, in
terms of developing brand awareness
2nd
objective: To discover and critically evaluate Turkish Airlines‟ global advertising
strategies in parallel with relevant theory.
3rd
objective: To understand the structure and to measure the impact of the specific
TV ad of Turkish Airlines
4th
objective: To determine whether Turkish Airlines advertising strategy will continue
to be successful for the company.
2. Literature Review
2.1 The Role and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness
2.1.1 How advertising works
It is difficult to determine if advertising is working, even though big investments are
made on this communication tool. Although numerous researches have been made,
the answers and required evidences to these questions are not conclusive yet. (Tellis,

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1998). The classic quote by John Wanamaker; „I know half of my advertising is
wasted, but I don’t know which half‟ summarizes the issue clearly. (Moriarty, Mitchell
and Wells, 2009) The reason why we see, hear and read over a million
advertisements from the day we were born to the day we die (Sardar, 2002) is
because, advertising plays a significant role in four main ways, such as; „creating
awareness, providing essential information, helping to build a relevant brand image,
and (once the brand has become more or less established), acting as a regular
reminder to try, buy, or use the brand.‟ (Jones, 1999). According to The UK IPA,
among other business aims advertising can;
 Place particular ideas in the public realm to make consumers aware of the
brand offerings,
 Create a favourable predisposition towards a brand,
 Explain things about the brand,
 Tell a story about uniqueness about the brand,
 Support more closely specified marketing techniques such as positioning and
repositioning, market segmentation, launch and re-launch, raising brand
awareness or rebranding, and fulfilling corporate communication objectives.
(Hackley, 2010)
2.1.1.1 Hierarchy of Effect Models From Traditional to the Recent
Since advertising and marketing communications have played a key role in the
destiny of brands, many different types of models have been around in the advertising
literature for more than a century (Hackley, 2010), in order to assess the impact of
advertising on its audience and help advertisers plan their advertising. (Yoo, Kim,
Stout, 2004) The most significant and commonly used models are, primarily; AIDA
(Lewis, 1800s), DAGMAR (Colley, 1961) and “hierarchy of effects” (Lavidge and
Steiner, 1961) models, of which „the validity in representing the reality of consumer
decision making has long been challenged.‟ (McDonald, 1992)
Amongst the hierarchy models, the most commonly used model, AIDA, is first
originated by St. Elmo Lewis around late 1800s. (Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells, 2009).
This acronym stands for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The AIDA model
simply explains that after the consumer attention is grabbed in the first place,
consumers ‘have to be pushed along a continuum of persuasion‟ until the sale is
recognized. (Hackley, 2010) It is considered to be a Hierarchy of effects model, as it
assumes a predictable set of steps. (Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells, 2009) This model
„implies a consumer mental process that is activated by an advertisement‟.
(Weilbacher, 2001a) The first model that developed against AIDA was Lavidge and
Steiner‟s model of advertising process and is presented in figure 2.1-1. (Yeshin,

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2006) The model posited by Lavidge and Steiner (1961) suggests that consumers go
through a variety of stair-step stages over time beginning with the „unawareness‟ of
the product until the act of purchase (Yoo, Kim and Stout, 2004). As Lavidge and
Steiner (1961) mentions that consumers do not turn into „convinced purchasers from
disinterested individuals, in one instantaneous step‟. It is; „rather a process or series
of steps such as; cognitive, affect and cognition, in which the actual purchase is but
the final threshold.‟ Conceptually, it can be taken as; cognition is thinking, affect is
feeling and conation is doing. (Barry and Howard, 1990) Basically, consumers think
about the message given by the advertisement, feeling something about the brand
and doing something such as buying or trying it.
Other proponents of the cognition-affect-conation sequence that are prior to this
model can be viewed in figure 2.1-2.
Figure 2.1-1 The Lavidge-Steiner traditional order hierarchy of effects

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Table 2.1-2 A summary of popular hierarchy models preceding the Lavidge-Steiner
model (Barry and Howard, 1990)
Colley (1961), in his well-known book Defining Advertising Goals for Measured
Advertising Results ( or simply DAGMAR), shifted the emphasis from „describing and
understanding enough about the consumer to conceptualize and to write effective
advertisements‟, to „a description of consumer research measurements that, once
made, could be used to demonstrate either that advertising was working or that it was
not. (Weilbacher, 2001b) Thus, with the 1961 publications of Lavidge and Steiner‟s
and Colley‟s books led hierarchy of effects model to advertising research
measurements such as „brand awareness, brand feature awareness, brand
preference, and intention – to – buy specific brands‟ (Weilbacher, 2001c), rather than
focusing on the sales alone. (Barry and Howard, 1990) These publications also
mention the steps and stages that consumers should be pushed along by the
advertisement before the purchase actually occurs. (Weilbacher, 2001d)

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Barry and Howard (1990). Following Lavidge and Steiner‟s model, also suggest that
researchers propounding the traditional hierarchy models claim that „audiences of
advertising and other marketing communications respond to the messages in a very
ordered way: cognitively first, affectively second, and conatively third. Although these
three stages of hierarchy are generally agreed by advertising researchers, there is
still a discrepancy regarding the order. (Yoo, Kim, Stout, 2004) for example, in their
„review and critique of the hierarchy of effects‟ study (1990), Barry and Howard,
presents six different hierarchical models for the sake of completeness. They explain
the potential consumption-related activities, and responses to advertising specifically.
These models are:
1. Cognition – affect – conation (Krugman, 1965-1966)
2. Cognition – conation – affect (Zajonc, 1980a, 1980b, 1984, 1986)
3. Affect – conation – cognition ( Bern, 1972; Kelly, 1973 and Ray 1973)
4. Conation – cognition – affect ( Kiesler, 1971)
5. Conation – affect – cognition ( Vaughn, 1980, 1986)
6. Affect – cognition – conation (Zajonc, 1980a, b)
They also note that „understanding how advertising works is a separate issue that
needs to be considered.‟ (Barry and Howard, 1990)
In recent studies, some other approaches to these models are added which are trying
to find a more suitable explanation to the various types of consumer responses to
advertising and evaluate the missing effects. Since all three effects are recognized by
advertising researchers, the Think / Feel / Do model is taken as a starting point.
(Moriarty, Mitchell, and Wells, 2009) Moriarty‟s Domains model suggests that there is
a perceptual dimension to advertising impact. Moriarty, Michell and Wells furthered
this by highlighting another missing area which is „persuasion‟. (2009) It explains the
establishment of conviction examining the creation or change of beliefs and attitudes.
They claim that persuasion depends on both think and feel responses‟, and „it does
not fit at all in the hierarchical models‟ when companies try to use Think / Feel / Do as
a model for objectives. Furthermore, they added „association‟ to the missing areas
which is used by Preston to explain the way „brand communication‟ works in general.
(as well as creating brands) (2009) Ultimately, they come with a solution building on
the effects that are identified in this three stages approach and the missing areas;
perception, brand association and persuasion. Moriarty, Michell and Wells (2009)
arrived at „The six-factor model‟ which they think is useful both in setting objectives
and evaluating the effectiveness of advertising. The six types of consumer responses
are; (1) see/ hear, (2) feel, (3)think/ understand, (4) believe, (5) connect, (6) act/ do.

26
This „facets of effects model‟ can be viewed on figure 2.1-3. They all work together
and have an effect on creating a response to the advertisement. (2009)
Figure 2.1-3 The Facets Model of Effects (2009)
In spite of the attempts that are made and such models have been employed for more
than a hundred years (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999), to analyse how advertising
works and there is no model that has ever gained the „general acceptance in the
marketing community‟. (Weilbacher, 2001e) It can be deduced from the advertising
studies that advertising cannot be held responsible by itself as a marketing activity
since there are other marketing factors. Colley (1961) identifies these contributing
factors as:
„The product must be competitively excellent; it must be conveniently available to
consumers; its package design must be attractive and appropriately functional; it must
be supported by personal selling (as necessary), supported by promotion, and
supported by publicity; it must be priced competitively; and so on. Beyond these
product-intrinsic factors, there are other extrinsic factors affecting specific brand sales
over which the marketer has no control, such as competitive activity, the economic
climate, and so forth.‟
2.1.2 Measuring the Effects of Advertising on Brand Awareness
Many researchers highlight that brand awareness has an effect on customer‟s
„purchase intention and purchase behaviour‟ (Woodside and Wilson, 1985), and as
Kelly (1991) suggested, it is a central part of the popular hierarchy of effects
advertising model like St. Elmo‟s AIDA (cited in Macdonald and Sharp, 1996). Hence,

27
while setting the marketing goals and advertising strategies, it is quite significant for
marketing managers to understand what the effect of brand awareness exactly is and
whether advertising works in promoting awareness of a brand; and if so, how?
In this literature review section, some concepts related to brand awareness will be
explained shortly with specific referrals to the empirical studies performed, in order to
achieve better understanding of both the terminology and the literature.
2.1.2.1 What is Brand Awareness?
Brand awareness is one of Aaker‟s five dimensions of brand equity. (Feldwick, 1999)
Aaker (1991) defines brand equity as „a set of assets – including brand awareness,
brand loyalty, perceived quality and brand associations that are attached to a brand
name or symbol. (Aaker and Biel, 1993) Since it plays the biggest role in brand
equity, (Srinivasan, Park and Chang, 2005), with creating or reinforcing brand
awareness, it is always a communication objective for the marketing managers.
(Percy and Elliot, 2009)
Furthermore, it can demonstrate the increased desire of consumers to remember the
brand on the verge of purchase, over other brands. (Miller & Berry, 1998) While
making purchase decisions, consumers prefer branded products as a point of
reference. (Sirgy, 1982) At this point, if they are going to buy it, they must be aware of
the brand. (Percy and Elliot, 2009) Thus, they need to have knowledge of the brand to
be able to identify it.
When they first see the product, the potential buyers have an uncertain feeling first,
and then the recognition of the brand occurs with the belief that it is the only one in
the product category. This continuum ranging is defined as brand awareness by
Aaker (1991)
2.1.2.1.1 Relevance to the brand knowledge and brand image
Keller (2003) considers brand awareness as a component of brand knowledge,
together with brand image. The brand name and specific concepts that are created or
reinforced in the memory when a customer is exposed to the brand, and this
information that is connected to the brand name constitutes brand image. (Keller,
1993) Keller later refers this constitution as „brand knowledge.‟ (Keller, 2003) Brand
knowledge is the main source for customer-based brand equity, which occurs when
the customer has an idea of the brand and holds some positive associations about

28
the brand in memory. (Tuominen, 1999 ). The main elements in customer- based
brand equity can be seen in figure 2.1-4. Tuominen (2000) stresses that there are
three key ingredients to the definition of this type of brand value. First, brand
knowledge has some differential effects that vary from consumer response to the
marketing of that brand. In other words, many different consumer responses cause
brand equity. If the response is the same, the brand can be classified as „a
commodity or a generic version of the product‟. Second, consumers‟ knowledge of a
brand can cause differences in response. Thus, no matter how influenced by the
marketing events of the company, brand equity is attached to what stays in
consumers‟ minds. Third, consumers‟ changing responses are reflected in
„perceptions, preferences, and behaviour related to all aspects of the brand‟ (Keller,
1998)
Figure 2.1-4 The main elements in customer-based brand equity (Keller, 1998)
Tuominen (2000) claims that brand awareness is related to consumers‟ ability to
recognize or recall the brand; and brand image to their perceptions of, and
associations for the brand. What is meant by brand associations is defined by Aaker
(1991) as; „brand associations help the consumer process, organize, and retrieve
Brand knowledge
Brand awareness
Brand
Recognition
Brand Recall
Brand image
Types of brand
association
Strength of
brand
associations
Favourability of
brand
associations
Uniqueness of
brand
associations

29
information in memory to aid product choice‟. Tuomien (1999a) also explores that that
the brand knowledge which has been created in consumer minds in the company‟s
previous marketing programs; is perhaps one of the company‟s most valuable asset
for improving marketing productivity. Therefore, while creating the brand and
awareness later on, and developing „profitable brand strategies‟, marketing managers
should consider underlying the value for it, rather than giving the prior significance to
financial valuation issues (Keller, 1993) Because, „people buy things not only for what
they can do, but also for what they mean‟ ( Meenaghan, 1995)
2.1.2.1.2 Recognition and Recall
Recognition and recall are the ingredients of brand awareness. When consumers are
first exposed to the brand, something registers in their minds, and they remember
seeing the advertisement before. This confirmation of prior exposure to the brand is
called recognition. (Keller, 1998) On the other hand, the consumers‟ understanding of
brand when they are not given the brand but the product category is brand recall.
(Keller, 1998) They are both used to measure the brand awareness. While brand
recognition is a measure of perceptions, brand recall is a measure of learning or
understanding. (Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells, 2009)
Recognition is a matter of the simple visions that registers on mind, such as; logos,
colours, jingles and sounds, characters, key visuals and slogans in an advertisement.
On the other hand, brand recall deals with the remembrance of copy points or the
information given about the brand. (Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells, 2009)
As brand awareness composed of recognition and recall, in order to achieve a
successful advertising strategy, marketing managers should be able to follow the
change in how consumers perceive and understand the brand. (Gustafson and
Chabot, 2007)
2.1.2.2 The effects of advertising
Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent annually on advertising in order to create
and maintain brand awareness in markets. (Naik, Prasad and Sethi, 2008)
Awareness of a brand is seen as one of the results of advertising response, together
with sales in return. Brand awareness as a part of brand equity is taken in terms of a
long-term result of advertising. Thus, two aspects of effectiveness are taken as: short-
term sales impact and long-run sales impact which is considered as the result of

30
brand awareness (Batra et al.1995). No matter what the effects are, in the end, the
companies „want to sell more, or more profitably with advertising, than they would
without it.‟ (Feldwick, 2002)
Researchers are trying to determine the advertising effects on brand awareness for
years and this issue still remains on the agenda. Since determinants such as the
market strategies and perceptions of brand associations can vary depending on
different factors, there are not definitive answers as to the effectiveness, awareness
and measurement questions that can be taken as truth. For instance, the study by
Hoyer and Brown (1990), in which they are examining the two aspects of brand
loyalty (purchase loyalty and attitudinal loyalty), it has been found that „brand
awareness is a dominant choice heuristic among awareness-group subjects‟ and
„building brand awareness is a viable strategy for advertising aimed at increasing
brand-choice probabilities‟. (Cited in Kathuria and Jit, 2009)
In another empirical study by Zielske which is showing an estimation of „the response
curves for various forms of response‟. These are: „(1) brand awareness, (2)
advertising awareness, (3) brand image, (4) brand preference‟. It has been observed
that the influence of advertising and the influence of the other market environment
factors are a composite‟. Looking at the conclusion, „the absolute increase‟ on
awareness is observed, although the extent of awareness varies from brand to brand
depending on whether it is a new or established product‟. (1986) Franses and Vrien‟s
study (2004) also underlines that advertising may possibly have three types of effects
such as; „(1) cognitive effects, (2) affective effects and (3) behavioural effects. For
each type they give specific examples which are respectively mentioned as: „brand
awareness‟ for cognitive, „brand positioning‟ for cognitive and affective, „consideration
liking for (affective) and „brand choice‟ for behavioural which all gives us a reference
to the hierarchy of effect models that are mentioned earlier (Jones, 1999).
2.1.2.2.1 Measurement of Effects
In the literature there are a number of attempts to measure the effectiveness in
different types of advertising, as it is „a central research interest‟ of the academics and
organizations (Singh, Rothschild and Churchill, 1988). Dyer (1988) notes that, the
effectiveness can be measured by „looking at the sales figures and estimating
whether the campaign has reached the effect that has been aimed, among a certain
group of people or in a specific area. Or [again], after releasing the new campaign,

31
questionnaires can be administrated and people can be asked whether their
purchasing decision has been influenced after the advertisement. Feldwick (2002)
lists “the commonest measures of „advertising effect‟ organised in order of their
remoteness from sales” as in Figure 1.3-2 shown below. He also stresses that
„intermediate measures are only valuable‟ when „they are relevant to the behavioural
goal of sales‟ and while evaluating advertising campaigns this ultimate objective
should always be taken into consideration. Thus, it can be concluded that the sales
and consumer effects are not „alternatives‟ but „complementary‟ (Feldwick, 2002)
Type of advertising effect Relevant Research
Exposure to advertising
Recall of advertising
Attitudes to/communication of advertising
Awareness of brand
Perceptions/image of brand
Attitude to brand
Claimed consumer behaviour
Consumer buying behaviour
Sales
Media research
Survey research
Survey/ qualitative research
Survey research
Survey research
Panel Data
Retail audit, consumer audit, ex-factory
data
Figure 1.3-2 Measures of Advertising Effect.
Ambler (1998) claims that the statement; „the measure of effective advertising is the
increase in sales.‟ is a myth and suggests that advertising is more relevant to the
maintenance rather than „the growth of new business‟ underlying that advertising
changes „brand equity‟ if it works at all, „not necessarily sales‟. Concordantly, Hackley
notes that „the effectiveness of a campaign should, logically, be assessed against the
objectives set for it, since the relationship between advertising and sales is subject to
many uncontrollable intervening variables in the consumer issues or simply inevitable
random fluctuations in demand”. (2010) According to Politz (1975), „familiarity
principle‟ and „persuasive principle‟ should be examined in the first place in terms of
measurement. Similarly, Haley and Baldinger (1991) gives the priority to „persuasion
and recall‟ while evaluating measures for the future of brands in their ARF validity

32
project, in which they confirm that multiple measures are needed while evaluating the
advertising effectiveness.
Politz (1975) defines familiarity as it tells about people‟s tendency towards „what is
known to them rather than to what is unknown‟, and „persuasive principle‟ represents
a systematic attempt to affect customers by „words, pictures, sounds, or motion.‟ He
furthers this definition stressing that researchers highly value the persuasive principle
factor due to the fact that they find it „desirable‟ to measure its effect „before placing
the message into the media.
In view of brand awareness being promoted by advertising, McDonald (2000)
suggests three ways of measurements. These are (1) „spontaneous (or prompted by
the category) including „top-of-mind‟ awareness; (2) prompted (via brand name); or
(3) recognition (prompted for example by a picture of the brand or pack)‟. For leading
competitors in the market, it is considered that „prompted and recognition measures‟
are considered not very useful and as a matter of fact, „a recognition method‟ is
mainly used as a „stimulus to focus the attention when it is being tried to explore the
level of a respondent‟s contact with the brand‟, rather than „a measure in itself‟
(McDonald, 2000).
Briefly stated, while recall and recognition are measuring „whether or not there is a
memory trace, persuasion deals with „what effect the ad might have on behaviour.‟
Although marketers are trying to develop new and mostly emotional communication
tools such as sport sponsorships, many researchers stress that measurements of
these psychological approaches to the events are still unclear. (Cited in Martensen et
al. 2007)
2.1.3 Sponsorship as a Global Advertising Strategy
2.1.3.1 Global Advertising Strategy
Lee and Carter (2009) stress that due to the appearance of global customers and the
competition in the global marketplace, organizations need to develop and continually
invest in strong brand names through advertising. One of the determinants of the
global advertising is different cultures factor. Companies are to choose between two
types of approaches to reach their target goal in terms of the effectiveness of their
global advertising strategies. These are „standardisation‟ and „differentiation‟.
Standardisation takes place when a company uses the standard brand names,

33
standard brand identities and standard positioning strategies. This approach basically
states that wherever the product or service is being marketed, the company follows a
strategy that it reflects the same brand image and the same brand personality within
the same positioning techniques (Figure 2.5). (Ak, 2006) It is reported that the most
important benefits of this type of approach is „cost reductions‟. (De Mooij, 2004) On
the other hand, Doole and Lowe (2003) suggest that as the technology has reached
quite high levels, it can also cause confusion about the brand image when customers
watch different advertising campaigns from different countries. (Cited in Backhous
and Doorn, 2007) Differentiation takes place when advertising „takes cultural
particularities of the cultures and countries, in which they are used, into
consideration.‟ (Diehl, Terlutter and Weinberg, 2003) Therefore, „locally produced
commercials usually feature local celebrities, music or symbols‟ in order to motivate
consumers easily, as in the global advertising, motivating customers around the
world is the key challenge for brand positioning and communication (Pae, Samiee
and Tai, 2000; Shivkumar, 2006) Additionally, even when the advertisements are
standardised, it will be difficult to standardise the execution style due to the cultural
differences and that is why, in global advertising the central requirement suggested
by Pae, Samiee and Tai (2000) as the cultural fit between the values in the
advertising message and the values of the receiver. Thus, when companies are
„formulating international advertising strategy‟, it is significant for them to understand
how the learning and thinking patterns differ between the local consumers and the
home markets (Pae, Samiee and Tai, 2000). De Mooij (2004) reports that „many of
the large multinationals that standardized their operations and brands since the 1990s
have seen their profits decline because centralized control lacks local sensitivity‟.
2.1.3.2. Sport Sponsorships
Since advertising is employed to create brand recognition in the airline transport,
companies prefer a relatively new concept: sports marketing which uses cultural
symbols, and serves as a communication platform for brands to meet with their target
audience (Odabası, 2004). While „sports sponsorship‟ is accepted as a strategic
activity in the marketing literature (Carter, 1996), sponsorship agreements are taken
as strategic investments for the companies and their brands (Amis, Slack and Berrett,
1999). According to the definition by Cornwell (1995); „sponsorship-linked marketing
is the orchestration and implementation of marketing activities for the purpose of

34
building and communicating an association to a sponsorship.‟ It has also been
stressed that there are three categories of outcomes obtained from the sponsorships
which are; cognitive, affective and behavioural (Cornwell et al, 2005a, 2006b). Keller
(1993) states that „cognitive-based outcomes include increasing brand awareness
and improving brand image‟ (cited in Wang and Zhang, 2010). In the Olson &
Thjømøe (2003) study, it has also been found that a successful sponsorship can
arouse „affective benefits‟ such as, „enhanced brand name preference besides
cognitive and behavioural outcomes (cited in Wang and Zhang, 2010).
Meenaghan (1991) states that there are two types of objectives that commercial
sponsorships include; trading objectives and communication objectives. Furthermore,
they work similar to advertising in terms of use to „communicate a company‟s
message and image for a product, brand, or service to the target market‟ aiming to
„increase the salience of the company or message‟ (Jalleh et al., 2002). It has been
also noted in Jalleh et al. (2002) that commercial sponsors occupy „brand names,
trademarks, or logo symbols‟ in the first place and relate these with the „image
attributes of the sponsored‟. They also include a hierarchical model to assess how
sponsorship can influence behaviour. (figure. 2.5)
Figure 2.1-5 Steps in a hierarchical
communication model by Donovan and Owen
(1994)
According to the suggested model, sponsorship or other promotional strategies
cannot affect behaviour directly. Mass media promotions‟ makes sponsorships likely
to be more effective in the early stages. On the other hand, other elements and
Exposure
Attention
Understanding
(knowledge)
Acceptance
(attitude)
Intention
Trial
Success

35
environmental factors are far more effective at the later behavioural stages. Thus,
Jalleh at al.(2002) claims that „it is important to measure sponsorship effects in terms
of the earlier stages in the hierarchical communication model.
Apparently there are many dependent variables while measuring the advertising
effectiveness on brand awareness and the lack of research on sport sponsorship
effects in the literature which prevent advertising and marketing researchers to come
to a certain conclusion. This study will be another attempt questioning the function
and evaluation of advertising effectiveness being referred to and briefly explained in
the secondary research above in order to carry out the research objectives. In
addition, the primary research will be carried out undertaking such a research.
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Conceptual Framework
3.1.1 Empirical Study
This dissertation is an empirical study which is based on observed and measured
phenomena. This empirical study employs a mixture of qualitative and quantitative
approaches.
3.1.2 Research Design
The current academic body of knowledge has been gained through the relevant
literature review and comparable studies. This has helped the researcher to formulate
a feasible research design which is defined by Denzin and Lincoln (2005) as a
process of creating an empirical test to support or refute a knowledge claim’.
According to Crotty (1998) there are four stages to social research which are; (1)
epistemology, (2) theoretical perspective, (3) methodology and (4) methods. On the
other hand, Saunders et al. (2009) depicts „a research onion‟ in which different stages
of research design is shown in the form of layers (Figure. 3.1-1). Unlike Crotty,
Saunders et al. (2009) classifies research into six stages which include; (1)
philosophies, (2) approaches, (3) strategies, (4) choices, (5) time horizons (6)
techniques.

36
Figure. 3.1-1 Research Onion (Saunders et al., 2009)
3.1.3 Realist research Philosophy
In this study, the research philosophy is realism which can be found in the first layer
of Saunders et:al‟s Research Onion. Realistic philosophy was adopted. According to
Sayer (2000) realism argues that „social objects are often affected by the way they
are construed‟ however, social objects have also „an ongoing real existence and it is
not like today‟s researchers construe them (Cited in Olsen, 2004). Realism offers that
perceptions have a certain flexibility (Churchland, 1979), so that reality and human‟s
perception of it have some differences (Bisman, 2002 cited in Krauss, 2005).
Moreover, being plural „with respect to methodologies and with respect to theories‟,
realism offers a good platform to be integrated in multiple-methods of research
(Krauss, 2005).

37
3.1.4 Deductive and Inductive Research Theory
Conceptually, deductive research deals with conceptual and theoretical structure to
be developed within, and then being tested by empirical observation; thus, it moves
from general influences to particular instances (Hussey and Hussey, 1997). On the
other hand, in inductive studies, empirical reality is observed and then a theory is
developed from the observation; thus, „general inferences are induced from particular
instances‟ which is the opposite of deductive method as it moves from „individual
observation‟ to the „statements of general patterns or laws‟ (Hussey and Hussey,
1997). This study was not methodologically limited to inductive or deductive
reasoning since it embodied a mixed (multiple) research approach. Thus, this will
provide „multiple sources‟ while gathering evidence. (Yin, 1994)
Deductive Approach Inductive Approach
Figure 3.1-2 Deductive approach versus inductive approach
3.1.5 Case Study
According to Stake (1995), a case study is „the study of the particularity and
complexity of a single case, coming to understand its activity within important
theory
hypothesis
observation
confirmation
theory
tentative
hypothesis
pattern
observation

38
circumstances.‟ Regarding this approach Bryman (1989) notes that case studies are
functional in „providing an understanding of areas of organisational functioning that
are not well documented and which are not amendable to investigation through
fleeting contact with organisations‟. In this study, Turkish Airlines was used as a case
study, due to the author‟s interest in the company‟s advertising campaigns as being
both a customer and a creative advertiser working in the field. This selection has
allowed the author to use her own knowledge and experience of the company while
developing an empirical study. During the selection process, Yin‟s four main factors
which are related to the decision of the case study organisation were also considered.
These factors are: relevance, feasibility, access, and application, of which all fit in the
selected organisation. (Yin, 1994)
3.1.6 Time Horizons
There are two types of time horizons which can be found in the research onion.
(Figure 3.1-1) Cross-sectional is often referred as „snapshot‟ as the research is
undertaken „at a particular point in time, on the other hand, longitudinal time horizon
in which the basic question; „Has there been any change over a period of time?‟ is
asked, observes events or people over time (Saunders et al, 2009). Due to the
restricted time limit, the cross-sectional time horizon chosen will be applied in this
study.
3.2 Secondary Data Collection
There are two sources of data: secondary and primary data. Secondary data has
already been collected through variable sources which includes; books, journals,
newspapers, academic studies and organisation website and can be found in section
two of this study. Secondary data was treated in two ways. Larger topics that are
covered in the literature review were broken down to smaller ones and after setting
the general observation, it was narrowed down to related findings which support a
deductive approach. Moreover, with the help of the observations of qualitative
findings, broader generalizations will be made based on the conclusions. However,
those generalizations will be analytical rather than being statistical since analytical
generalizations are relatively more „intuitive, ideographic and empirical as Lincoln and
Guba (1994) suggested.

39
3.3 Primary Data Collection
3.3.1 Mixed-method Research
As previously mentioned, this is a mixed methods research which was chosen over
for „a better understanding of research problems than either approach alone‟
(Creswell, 2006). Creswell also points out that this method considers „collecting,
analyzing and mixing both quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or series
of studies‟. This type may be a mix of qualitative and quantitative, a mix of mix of
qualitative methods or a mix of quantitative methods (Brannen, 2005). A mix of a
quantitative and qualitative method was adopted in this research with an online
survey and a semi-structured interview through gathering the primary data. Some part
of the literature review looked at mainly at the functionality and measurement of
advertising in creating and developing brand awareness both in local and global
scales. Also, brand awareness was associated with Turkish Airlines‟ sport
sponsorship strategy. The data about the company was not easy to gather through
the internet or from other sources, as they were either insufficient or inaccurate and
unreliable for such a research. Hence, an interview with certain company executive
was essential for the purpose. In respect thereof Gray (2009), suggests that when
„relatively little or nothing is known about the research problem or research setting‟, it
would not be feasible and practical to design a questionnaire as „the constructs which
are being measured are not understood efficiently.‟ This prompted the author to
undertake a qualitative research with which she would be able to „explore, identify
and provide clarity about the kinds of variables requiring further investigation‟ (Gray,
2009). Also, as brand awareness of the selected company was to be discussed with
the light of related literature review, an online survey was also conducted. This
research paradigm helps the author „bridge the schism between quantitative and
qualitative research‟ (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2004). According to Creswell (2006),
this method was advantageous for six reasons. (1) This type of research provides
more comprehensive evidence and researchers are allowed to use all of the tools of
data collection. (2) It has more possibilities in terms of answers that are gathered from
each approach alone. (3) It encourages researchers to cooperate across the
adversarial relationship between qualitative and quantitative researchers. (4) For the
quantitative research, the argument goes that it is weak in understanding the context
or setting in which people talk. On the other hand, the qualitative research is accepted

40
as it makes up for those weaknesses. Thus, preferring mixed methods will provide
researchers strengths that offset the weaknesses of each. (5) Mixed methods
research encourages the use of multiple worldviews and paradigms instead of the
typical association of certain paradigms for quantitative researchers and others for
qualitative researchers. (6) This type is „practicality‟ in terms of being free to use all
possible methods to address a research problem. In addition to that, since people
show a tendency to solve problems using both numbers and words, both deductive
and inductive thinking is combined.
Besides its advantages, there are some disadvantages of using mixed methods. For
instance, it takes time for the researchers to collect and analyse both the qualitative
and quantitative data. It makes the procedures difficult and a clear presentation is
essential. Creswell (2006) defines these issues as critical, however, they are not
insuperable. He furthers this stressing that „strategies can be used to address them
and also it appears that the value of this type of research surpasses the potential
difficulty of this research.
3.3.1.1 Mixing the Data
This was a significant phase for the study as simply collecting and analysing
qualitative and quantitative data would not be enough. They were to be mixed in
some way so that they could form a more complete picture together for the
conclusions than they do when standing alone (Creswell, 2006). Clarifying „what is
being mixed and how it is being mixed is also necessary. (Bazeley, 2002) The
different types of mixing methods that are adopted from Creswell can be viewed in
figure 3.3-1.
Merge the data:
Connect the data:
Qualitative data Results Quantitative data
Qualitative data Quantitative data Results

41
Embed the data:
Figure 3.3-1 Three Ways of Mixing Quantitative and Qualitative (Creswell, 2006)
3.3.1.2 Sequential Design
Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods can be done in parallel (also referred as
„concurrently‟) or sequentially (Rocco, 2003; Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2006; Collins
et al., 2007). In this study, adopting sequential design, in the qualitative phase was
conducted first to inform the consequent quantitative phase. (Collins et al, 2007) In
other words, the quantitative research component created the independent variable
(i.e., levels of brand awareness) and the qualitative research element created the
dependant variable (i.e. the perception of brand knowledge, brand image, advertising
strategies) (Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2006).
3.3.2 Semi-structured Interview
Semi-structured interview was chosen over „structured‟ and „unstructured interviews
as the author had a list of themes and questions to be covered‟ (Saunders et. al,
2000). While the interview was being carried out, a voice recorder was used to
capture the conversation with the consent of the interviewee. Tape recording has
some advantages that it allowed the author to concentrate on questioning and
listening, then listening to the recording again while writing up the analysis, enabled
the author to use the direct quotations from the interviewee (Saunders et al, 2000).
Additionally, the interview was carried out in Turkish and the interviewee was
informed that the interview was going to be translated into English. The translation
was made by the author as she is also a sworn interpreter in Turkey. Translated form
was sent to the interviewee again „to check the accuracy of the translation‟ since this
was significant in terms of „maintaining the internal validity of this research‟ (Tan,
2011).
Quantitative data
Qualitative data
Results

42
3.3.2.1 Advantages
The advantage of this type of interview for the author was that she could design the
wording of the questions by her discretion (Corbetta, 2003). For each topic, she was
free to „conduct the conversation as she thinks fit‟ and to explain when it is needed
and if the answer is not clear enough she could ask for clarification for a further
explanation; thus she was able to establish her own way of conversation (Corbetta,
2003). In addition to that, the interviewee had the freedom to express his views in his
own perspective and the information obtained from semi-structured interviews
provided not only answers, but also reasons for those answers. (Cohen, 2006)
3.3.3 Online survey
Online survey method was preferred rather than a paper based survey as it was more
feasible to reach people through internet since the internet as medium is a fruitful
area for conducting survey research (Wright, 2005). A commercial video of the
selected company was needed to be watched to be able to answer some of the
questions in the questionnaire. Delivering the survey online was an advantage for
such reasons as; the author did not incur printing costs (Sheehan, 2002), individuals
in distant locations were accessed easily, and automated data collection which
reduced the time and effort of the author was convenient (Wright, 2005). Additionally,
Andrew et al (2003) claims that online surveys have identifiable characteristics such
as; technological, demographic and response attributes that affect their design, use
and implementation. Survey design, participant privacy and confidentiality, sampling
and subject allowance, distribution methods and response rates, and survey
management are crucial methodological components that must be addressed.
3.3.3.1 Sources of Distribution
The survey was posted online for 8 days on some websites as shown in figure 3.3-2.
Consequently, the survey obtained 341 responses in total. The survey for
international people had 104 responses, 80 of which were fully completed and 24
partially completed. The one for the local people obtained 237 responses, 178 of

43
which were fully completed and 59 were incomplete. The results can be viewed in
figure 3.3-3.
These websites were chosen in order to gain the maximum response rates from
people in different locations who are the customers or potential customers of Turkish
Airlines, and those who are exposed to Turkish Airlines advertisements through
different channels. The Facebook and Twitter pages were chosen due to their wider
audience profiles. However, Manchester United and Manchester Facebook pages did
not allow posting the survey and deleted the post in a very short time which is not
known exactly when. Hocam.com is the first and only website which serves as a
social network in Turkey, only for university students or university graduates who are
potential businessmen and businesswomen, or students from all over Turkey who
often travel on holidays. According to the statistics „www.hocam.com‟ has 320.000
members in total, 243.000 of which are active members writing in forum topics (Koca,
2010). Additionally, since the survey included questions in which the brand name and
the company should be guessed, the author was not able to post it on any Turkish
Airlines pages in social network pages such as; Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and
Twitter personal pages included seven and three people respectively of which the
'friend' numbers are quite high which enabled the author to reach people from Turkey,
Australia, Malaysia, China, United Kingdom, Italy and United States.
In the survey respondents were allowed to answer the questions only once, and had
a right to go back and edit their answers. Thus, it was ensured that each respondent
filled the survey only once even if they had seen the survey link on more than one
occasion. By using these websites it was ensured that the survey reached the
potential customers of Turkish Airlines as the target audience which helped to
reinforce the research objectives.
Total responses Complete Incomplete
English 104 80 24
Turkish 237 178 59
Figure 3.3-2 Survey Results Distribution

44
Channel Potential Reach / Fans / Followers
Hocam.com 320.000
Manchester United Facebook page* 23.352.184
Manchester United Twitter page* 179.732
Personal Facebook pages (7 People) 5598
Personal Twitter pages (3 People) 22.813
Potential Reach 23.880.327
Figure 3.3-3 Sources of Distribution
3.3.3.2 Advantages
Delivering the survey online was an advantage for such reasons as; access to
populations, time, and cost. During the data collection, individuals in distant locations
were accessed easily unlike traditional survey research methods (Wright, 2005). The
author did not incur printing costs (Sheehan, 2002), as the internet is in place so while
collecting the data, the variable costs of using web is nearly zero (Cui, 2007).
Automated data collection which reduced the time and effort of the author for data
collection and tabulation. In addition to that, unlike traditional methods, online survey
allowed reaching a number of people in a short amount of time. Furthermore, creating
an online survey via software packages using various templates helped saving time
and effort for the author (Wright, 2006).
3.3.3.3 Disadvantages
Besides its advantages, complementing an online survey has also some
disadvantages for the researcher, such as; sampling, validity of the data,
generalizability and technical issues. It is hard to draw probability samples based on
website visitations (Gingery, 2011). Also, sampling issues prevent the researcher
from making generalizations about research findings, and this in return restricts the
researcher‟s ability to estimate population parameters (Wright, 2006). Moreover,
online surveys will not work with some populations as not everyone has access to the
World Wide Web, and also, some possible respondents might have „limited computer
literacy or different screen configurations‟. In addition, respondents may consider it as
a spam and refuse to click on it as they have a tough time distinguishing a survey and
a spam message (Evans and Mathur, 2005). Hudson and Bruckman (2004) furthers
that when the survey is posted on boards, discussion groups or chat rooms to

45
participate in, members of these communities may find it rude or offensive. Some
abusive people who get irritated by researcher‟s invasion of privacy can send hate e-
mails or other types of abuse can occur (Andrews et al, 2003).
Also, Ray and Tabor (2003) notes that some individuals may exit survey without
completing due to the frustration.
Figure 3.3-4, which was adopted from the Evans and Mathur study, shows a
comparison of the potential strengths and weaknesses of conducting online survey.

46
Figure 3.3-4 The strengths and potential weaknesses of online surveys
3.3.3.4 Survey Design
„Kwik Surveys‟ website was chosen over other alternative online survey software
tools. The survey was created, the link was sent out and the data was collected from
this website. (http://www.kwiksurveys.com/) Other alternative websites were; Survey
Monkey, Freeonlinesurveys or Zoomerang. Kwik Surveys was the only website which
offers to create an unlimited amount of questions. On the other hand, others only
allowed 10 questions to create for free users. In addition, Kwik Surveys ordered
responses and results automatically and the author was able to get survey result
tables and graphs with the options of exporting all the results into Excel or pdf files.
The author was also able to print them out, exporting them to a disc or view individual
results. All these allowed the author to get a quick collection of results.
As the questionnaire offers only one chance to collect data, it was crucial to plan
precisely what data was needed to collect, the intention to analyse them, and
designing of the questionnaire to meet these requirements (Saunders et al, 2000).
Thus, it was ensured that the questionnaire had both quantified selection options for
the answers and narrative type question answers (Yun and Trumbo, 2000). The
length of the survey was not too long (Iacobucci and Churchill, 2010), and clear
wording was used in the questionnaire which eased respondents' understanding of
the terms and thus, improved the validity of the questionnaire (Saunders et al., 2000).
The first two questions included some categorical data, which were prepared to
collect some initial demographic information such as age and gender. The rest of the
questions included list, scale, category and open-ended questions. List questions
offered a list of responses so that the respondent could consider all possible
responses and choose any of the responses whereas by category questions the
answer could only fit one category. Category questions are useful when the data
about behaviour and attributes are needed to be collected (Saunders et al. 2000).
Scale questions were designed to collect attitude and belief data, of which the most
common approach is Likert-style. With this approach the respondents were asked
„how strongly they agree or disagree with a series of statements (Saunders et al,
2000).
The questionnaire had two pages, on the first page there were two questions which
required respondents to name the brand from its logo, and the jingle of the TV
commercial for a specific advertising campaign of the company. On the second page,
related TV commercial was posted as a You Tube video and the respondents were

47
asked to watch the video and answer the following questions regarding the TV
commercial. By doing so, participants‟ perceptions of how credible they found the
commercial and the extent they were familiar with the brand, the extent they learned
about the brand, the extent they found sport sponsorship effective was measured.
In most of the questions a comment box was also added to avoid respondents from
selecting an option which is irrelevant or not appropriate for them (Wadia and
Parkinson, 2010).
3.3.4 Sampling
Collins et al. (2007) mentions the four challenges in mixed research; one of which is
„the challenge of representation‟ that is referred to the fact that sampling problems
characterize both quantitative and qualitative research. In their study, Collins et al.
stresses that the challenge of representation is generally intensified as both
qualitative and quantitative components of studies have their own unique challenges
(Collins et al., 2007). In addition to that, „the sampling design should allow
researchers to make generalizations to other participants, populations, settings,
locations and so on (Maxwell, 1992 cited in Collins et al. 2007). Thus, this sequential
sampling design involved some of the findings stemmed from the descriptive nature
of the qualitative phase and drove the qualitative phase, and consequently the
sample pertained to integration (Collins et al, 2007). In other words, the qualitative
data was converted into quantitative variables that can be fed into a „predictive
regression model‟ (Bazeley, 2004).
3.3.4.1 Probability Sampling
In this study, probability sampling was used as each member of the population had a
certain probability to be included and the selection was completely randomly
(Corbetta, 2003).
3.3.4.2 Cluster Sampling Technique
Cluster sampling was selected by the author as the population could be subdivided
into groups. Additionally, following this procedure, not the units (the individuals) but
the clusters were selected and then all the units belonging to the clusters were
included in the sample (Corbetta, 2003). Other reasons that affected this selection
was the low opportunity cost while reaching a wider geographical area of the

48
population and the advantage of getting the result and feedback of the online survey
more quickly than other techniques could offer (Saunders et al, 2003).
3.3.4.3 Sample Frame
The author wanted every possible individual to participate in the survey both in
Turkey and overseas as this is a case study. A „frameless sampling strategy‟ was
employed in which „most or all of the target population has a positive chance of being
sampled‟ (Fricker, 2006). As Saunders et al (2003) suggests, at least a hundred
responses from both the national and the international respondents were expected to
ensure a 95% level of certainty which would be expected to represent the
characteristics of the population.
There might be some issues regarding the sampling frame as Andrews et al (2003)
also suggests. Especially for the international surveys, Dillman (1999) suggests that
„the completeness, currency, and availability of the usual sampling frames‟ may differ
from country to country. This problem is mainly related to the online surveys in
regards to identifying appropriate respondents which might be a challenge (Hartford
et al, 2007). Moreover, in online communities the characteristics of individuals may
relatively be known little, apart from the basic demographic variables, and even this
information may be questionable (Dillman, 2000). These sampling problems prevent
researchers‟ ability to make generalizations about the findings. Thus, consequently
this prevents their ability to estimate population parameters which is a big threat to
conducting probability research (Wright, 2005).
3.4. Data Analysis Methods
Analyzing data in a mixed research study is the most complex step while writing the
research report because after collecting, both the quantitative and qualitative data
have to be analysed and the results that stem from the analysis have to be integrated
in a coherent and meaningful way (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). Moreover, if the
quantitative analysis component is given higher priority, the analysis is quantitative-
dominant. Mixed analysis which is adopted in this study, because the author found
that including qualitative data and analysis is likely to increase understanding of the
underlying phenomenon (Johnson et al., 2007 cited in Onwuegbuzie and Combs,
2011).

49
In this study, the quantitative data analysis and data collection was carried out
through exporting results directly from the Kwik Surveys website straight into
Microsoft Excel. This spreadsheet program was chosen due to author‟s familiarity
with it and her skills in using Excel. The data was also reviewed for the potential
errors such as data entry errors, and recorded qualitative data was converted into the
written form entering into Microsoft Word to be able to read again when it is needed.
However, since only one person was interviewed, the data was not quantitized
(defined by Driscoll et al, 2007 as: „analysed statistically using codes). For the online
survey, cross tabulation will be used to compare the categorical data such as
demographics in national and international responds, and further analysis will be
made by using chi square test which is a non parametric test (Saunders et al, 2003;
Driscoll et al, 2007).
4. Results
4.1 Questionnaire Results
In this section some answers from the questions are presented in graphs below. The
entire questionnaire can be found in appendix.
44
57
Gender
Female Male

50
0
40
51
5 5
2
0
Age
Under 16 16-25 26-35 36-45
46-55 56-65 65 +
67
19
Can you name the company from this
logo?
Yes No

51
52
33
11
1 1 1 1
Can you name the company from this
logo?
No Turkish Airlines THY
Virgin Free Wings Vodafone
Ducati
71
11
5
2
1 1 1
Can you name the company that, this jingle reminds
you of?
No Turkish Airlines THY Cola Cola
Microsoft Free Wings Could not open

52
67
19
Have you ever heard of Turkish
Airlines?
Yes No
28
58
Have you ever flown with Turkish
Airlines?
Yes No

53
22
14
27
9
3
12
16
How did you find Turkish Airlines?
Tv Ads Newspaper/Magazine
Online Billboard
Radio A Friend Recommended
Other
23
15
10
38
How well do you remember this ad?
Don't remember at all
Remember the company but not the ad
Remember Rooney but not the company
Remember ad

54
28
58
Have you ever seen this ad on TV?
Yes No
60
9
7
2
0
8
In the past week, excluding the video you
just saw, how many times have you seen
an advertisement for Turkish Airlines?
0 1 2 3 4 5 or more

55
34
2
36
5
19
What would you say is the main message of this ad?
Turkish Airlines is of high quality
They do big discounts cheaper than their competitors
It is brand awareness the company is trying to expose itself
It is safe to fly with Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines is the best the service they are offering is great
26
6
0
10 9
34
4
34
4
20
26
5 5
23
1
6
What would you say about this advertisement, if you were to describe
it to a friend?
Memorable Unique Enticing Informative
Believable Creative Irritating Funny
Sincere Attention-getting Energetic Boring
Indifferent Pleasant Emotional Strong

56
42
22
17 19
27
24
6
Based on the features advertised, this ad..
The ad message is understandable
The ad is believable
The ad's message is relevant to me
After viewing this ad I will consider Turkish Airlines for my next flight
This ad is better than other ads by the competitors
It could be more informative
Even if they work miracles I wouldn't change the airlines company I always fly with

57
5. Findings Analysis
5.1 Semi-structured Interview Analysis
The aim of this interview was to reach reliable and accurate information about the
selected company, Turkish Airlines. In terms of advertising strategy, the interview
suggested that Turkish Airlines puts the main emphasis on the international
advertising strategies to create brand awareness (including creating and developing
brand knowledge, brand image and identity). They determine their strategy depending
on the major target countries such as; Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, India,
United States, China, Russia and Ukraine. As all these countries have their own
national carrier companies, Turkish Airlines aims to be the second major airline
company in these countries in 10 years time. They believe that the creative idea is the
most important criterion in the use of advertising. Thus, they give priority to the
advertising content:
‘Advertising is one of the most significant tools of marketing. In some countries, it is
the most important one, however, in some; it is just assistive that must be supported
by PR. Today, there is a fast consumption. And since this fast consumed thing is
content, you have to have a great creative intelligence. If you have one, you can be in
a distinguishable position then’.
‘... We are trying to produce a very good content. There is no difference between the
online and offline channels anymore, so we are trying to consider all the aspects in
whatever we do. For example, if we are making a commercial film, we consider that it
should be a film which is shared in the social media, thus, that is a component we
consider while creating the content.’
Brand awareness: Although Turkish Airlines is one of the best airline companies in
the world in terms of service, food and in-flight entertainment; they believe that the
company still needs some time in terms of developing brand identity, brand
awareness and functionality:
„Two years ago, we made sponsorship agreements with two big teams (Manchester
United and FC Barcelona) however, we just see the effects. People do not directly go
and buy our tickets as soon as they see Manchester United, Barcelona or Kobe
Bryant. Sustainability is important. Thus, I say we need 10 years‟.
„… we have our rivals in every country. Also, there are different channel dynamics in
different countries. Television is still the most effective channel in the world, and it is
likely to go this way. However, in some countries, digital advertising has become
influential. We are trying to connect the customers considering this different channel
dynamics‟.
Brand image: The company changed its original Turkish name, Turk Hava Yolları,
(THY) to „Turkish Airlines‟ Two years ago, however, they still use the Turkish name in

58
some rural areas in Turkey. Furthermore, the company tries to develop its brand
image in order to create brand awareness:
„… because even if an airline company which you have never heard of before, offers
you cheap or even free tickets, you would not fly with that that company as you do not
know it. Therefore, we are investing on brand awareness in a lot of countries‟.
Advertising campaign: Turkish Airlines focuses on the emotional and functional
connections with their customers in their advertising campaigns. They use the
humour element in their commercials to make it worth watching, doing so they also
consider the functionality:
„…showing Manchester United team playing football and having fun in flight makes it
worth watching, however, we actually present our new business seats for the first
time with that commercial. While presenting our business class seats on one hand,
we are also presenting the catering services and in-flight entertainment on the other‟.
Advertising effectiveness: The Company prefers TV as the priority media channel in
all the countries where it is necessary, or depending on the budget. The primary
target is the business travellers. Furthermore, the interview pointed out that before
the Manchester United TV commercial, the occupancy rate was 65% which increased
to 85% after the commercial.
Sport sponsorship: The interview suggests that the success of Turkish Airlines
depends more on the good product they offer in the first place and the sports
sponsorships in the second place due to the belief that the quality of a product
promotes word-of-mouth advertising. In addition to that, they preferred sponsoring
Manchester United both for believing that Manchester United is the best team in the
world and to be able to reach the audience in the Far East and Middle East countries:
„In England there are only 6 million supporters. However, in Indonesia it is 75 million
and in China it is about 60 million. For us, these markets are quite significant.
Therefore, we preferred Manchester United. And it is the same issue for selecting FC
Barcelona as well‟.
Furthermore, the company prefers sport activities predominantly as their brand
communication depends on the „red globe‟: (can be viewed in figure 5.1-1)
„Our motto is „Globally Yours‟ and we have our jingle and everything. Thus, the best
way to use this globe is sports activities, actually, sports that are played with a ball.
Therefore, we work with the tennis, basketball and football players since it fits them all
as they are playing with our globe instead of a ball. The audience have to see it all the
time:

59
Figure 5.1-1 Turkish Airlines Red Globe
„… seeing that globe on the sky does not mean anything to the audience but they
have to see it being played with, thus they can put it in the activities in the daily living‟.
They also claim that this is a good way to affect „recall‟ component of brand
awareness as it will be a clue for the memory of the customers‟.
Measuring: The Company believes that people might not understand the ad message
due to the cultural differences. Thus, they prefer focus groups for pre-testing the
effectiveness of the commercials and change some parts when it is necessary before
it is featured on TV.
The interview also explored how Turkish Airlines‟ future advertising strategy will
primarily focus on localisation as all the countries have their own cultural
demographics. For example, they prefer using local celebrities in China, Italy, etc,
whereas they do not prefer celebrities in Germany due to the low celebrity
endorsement rates in contrast to the world‟s celebrity endorsement rates. In Ukraine
they will continue their current strategy as they are already the second airline
company following up the country‟s national airline company.
Other than looking at the sales records they also check the direct sales in promotions.
They also ask for an independent research from the magazines on which their ads
are published. Thus, the effectiveness is determined by the audience which provides
a great deal of data for the company. Doing so, they decide on which page their ad is
going to be published.

60
5.2 Online Survey Findings and Analysis
Demographics and Turkish Airlines‟ Brand Awareness
The survey suggests that gender demographics in both national and international
customers has almost the same rates. The large majority of the respondents in
Turkey are aged 16-25 which would lead to the presumption that the respondents are
mainly university students in Turkey considering the Turkish education system. On
the other hand, in the international survey the large majority is 26-35 age group which
seems that they are most probably employees.
The survey has also found out that although Turkish Airlines is Turkey‟s national
airline company, 5% of the population could not recognize the company logo, and
1.7% guessed that it was another company. In the international survey 50.9% of the
population could not recognize the logo and 5.8% recognized the wrong company.
This suggests that as a component of brand awareness, and brand identity has not
been stuck in half of the international customers‟ minds.
Apart from that, although Turkish Airlines has changed its brand name in Turkey,
83.5% of the population either do not know the new name or prefer the old name of
the company whereas only 4.6% responded with the new name. Interestingly, 10.5%
of the international population knew company‟s old name. Apparently, Turkish Airlines
needs some more time before customers in Turkey get used to its new brand identity
which Keller (2007) also suggests in his book.
It should also be noted that the commercial jingle is not known by 40% of Turkish and
73.1% by the international populations, although this commercial film was made for
and featured in foreign TV channels. It is used in „globally yours‟ advertising
campaign of which the Manchester United, FC Barcelona and Kobe Bryant
commercials are the most attention-grabbing ones. However, only 16.4% of the
international and 43.8% of domestic respondents, responded as „Turkish Airlines‟
although it was not featured in TVs in Turkey. It may be suggested that Turkish
people follow Turkish Airline commercials online (most probably on YouTube,
considering the hits and comments below). In addition to that, in Turkey 9.1% thought
that this jingle is of some other companies including: Coca Cola by 5%, Turkcell with
2.1% (which is the leading GSM operator in Turkey according to the statistics by
www.oyumsana.com), YouTube by 2%. On the other hand, 5% of the international
population said it could be: Coca Cola, Pegasus, Free Wings or Microsoft.
The international survey also explored that 77.91% of the respondents have heard of
Turkish Airlines before, although 67.44% have never flown with the company. This

61
question was answered by the respondents after watching the commercial film which
suggests that the film may have evoked the brand in the memory of respondents as
an aided recall. Also the rates may suggest that international brand awareness has
been reached to some extent already.
Only 1.55% of the Turkish respondents answered as they have not heard of the
company before, which may not be reliable as they could also find the question
pointless since it is the national airline company of the country. In addition to that
60.82% of Turkish respondents have never flown with Turkish Airlines. This suggests
that although the desired brand awareness was reached by the company, there may
be some other reasons such as ticket prices which affect their purchase decisions.
According to the survey statistics, 22.13% of the international population has found
Turkish Airlines on the internet. This is followed by TV ads (18.03%). On the other
hand in Turkey it is the opposite that 27.47% of respondents have seen Turkish
Airlines on TV ads and this is followed by online ads by 21.08% respondents. This as
a whole may suggest that online channels in the global market and TV in Turkey is
more effective through awareness of a brand. This could imply a few scenarios;
respondents may have seen Turkish Airlines TV ad on Manchester United, FC
Barcelona and Kobe Bryant web pages or their pages on the social media such as
Facebook, Twitter and Youtube as they have to mention the company name
according to the sponsorship deal. Furthermore, people might also share the video on
their personal pages as the world‟s most famous teams players are starring in the
films, thus the respondents may have become aware of the company this way.
Another scenario would be that in Turkey the success of Turkish Airlines has been
the subject for many TV programs, people may have watched those programs rather
than the TV ads of the company.
Manchester United Commercial Film:
The survey points out that 67.44% of the international respondents have not seen this
commercial film on TV before. On the other hand, 52.33% of the local respondents
indicated that they have seen it on TV which is most probably those TV programs
mentioned before, as this commercial has never been on TV but been talked about in
various programs, including sports programs and news. Also, considering that almost
half of the local population has never seen any Turkish Airlines ads on TV within a
week's time corroborates the idea that it must have been such programs, not the

A Study into the Role and Effectiveness of Advertising on Brand Awareness with Specific Reference to the Turkish Airlines Case Study

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