HOW ONLINE ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL NETWORKS AFFECT VIETNAMESE YOUNGSTERS ATTITUDES:

A CASE OF FACEBOOK
Mai TT Dao - U1473572, MSc Marketing, The University of Huddersfield
BACKGROUND
Social network sites (SNSs), such as Facebook and Twitter, have formed a

Advertising in Social Network Sites (SNS):

new trend for social communication for many years, engaging in the mass of

Kaplan & Heanlein (2010) defined SNSs as applications that enable users to

marketing aspects, involving the management of online advertising (Li, Lee

connect with each other by personal profiles, sending mails and instant

and Lien, 2012). As the rapid growth of the internet usage, social network

messages. Thus , it might be seen as an online communities of people who

sites can be considered as the effective platforms to convince and affect

share interests and activities with others (Jothi, Neelamalar, & Prasad,

consumers awareness towards an organizations offerings (Palmer &

2011). In term of advertising on SNSs, businesses and advertisers can use

Koenig-Lewis, 2009;

them to target their market, because it allows access to demographic

Shih, 2009,

Mabry

and

Porter,

2010). Thus,

advertisement on SNSs then has drawn many attentions from academics and

information of its users (Roberts, 2010).

practitioners (Ha, 2008; Kim and McMillan, 2008).

Advertising on Facebook:

There are several studies related to attitudes toward advertising; however,

Facebook is the most popular and interesting SNS among businesses to use

merely few researches target advertising on SNS in term of consumers

viewpoints (Bond, Ferraro, Luxton and Sands, 2010). Meanwhile, because

SNSs interact with users in a large scale, the lack of consumers attitude
understanding might harm a companys brand equity (McLennan & Howell,
2010). Additionally, Vietnamese Facebook users, mostly are youngsters,
making up nearly 30 percentages of Vietnamese population (Tomiyama,

2015) and the number are still climbing incredibly annually ( Vietnamnet,
2014). Moreover, Tomiyama (2015) also declare that Vietnam companies

have followed the trend, investing more on Facebook marketing to grab

consumers. Against this backdrop, understanding the consumer attitude
towards this area is necessary. The aim of the research is to explain the

effects of online advertising on SNS towards consumer attitudes, focusing the

use of Facebook and Vietnamese youngsters

RESEARCH QUESTION

for promotion purposes. The advantage of advertising on Facebook is its

ability to attract users to use text, images, videos and links as interactive
content, as strategies to track and share new products with consumers

(Yaakop et al., 2012). Due to the aggressive growth of Facebook,

companies are able to provide a large group of people information about
their business and brand; therefore they have the opportunity to be visible to

the world.
The dimension of audiences attitudes towards online advertising on

SNSs:
A previous study by Zeng et. al (2009) found that responses to online
advertising via social network heavily depended on perceptions of
advertising relevance and value, as well as being influenced by social
identity and group norms. Unlike, Hadija (2008) found perceived interactivity

as an important influence in consumers responses to the same subject.

Other dimensions such as advertising avoidance, credibility and privacy

How do Vietnamese consumers attitudes affected by advertising on

advertising (Kelly, 2008; Roberts, 2010). Therefore, in congruence with the

the online social network (Facebook)?

previous literature, this research is proposing that consumers attitudes

What do Vietnamese consumers expect from Facebook advertising?

towards advertising on Facebook is presented as a two-level structure

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

depicting generalized perception of advertising on Facebook and the

individuals perceptions with advertising. These structures will be examined

through five dimensions, including

Objective 1: To enhance the understanding of Vietnamese youngsters

attitudes toward Facebook advertising.

Objective 2: To enhance the understanding of Vietnamese youngsters

attitudes toward Facebook advertising.

Objective 3: To reveal the consumers expectation towards Facebook

avoidance, credibility and privacy.

Subject conceptual framework

H1: Perceived interactivity significantly influence attitudes towards the

advertisement on Facebook.
H2: Advertising avoidance significantly influence attitudes towards the

advertisement on Facebook.
H3: Credibility significantly predicts influence towards the advertisement on

Facebook.
H4: Privacy significantly influence attitudes towards the advertisement on
Facebook.
Research design:
Type of study: Explanation study

were used in the past to measure consumers perceptions towards online

advertising.

METHODOLOGY

LITERATURE REVIEW

perceived interactivity, advertising

Based on the nature of the research, survey is chosen as the research

strategy for this dissertation. The reason behind is using questionnaire

method (online survey questionnaire) will enable the collection of

standardize data from a sizable population (Saundersandetc,2012). This
survey will be written in Vietnamese to avoid misunderstanding of questions
and should be appropriately distributed via the internet (email, social
networks etc.)

Sampling:
Subject: Vietnamese Facebook Users

Demographic: 18-26 years old, student (especially advertising or marketing

students because they represent future advertising professionals; thus,
measuring their attitudes to advertising would provide for a good start in this

research area)
Size: 200

Resources
Data and information will be collected from the university library, journal
articles, reports, current research and reliable websites. Besides, some free
online software are required such as SPSS for analysing the collected data
and Google Forms for creating the online questionnaire.