Consumers’ Attitudes toward Unsolicited Commercial E-mail
and Postal Direct Mail Marketing Methods: Intrusiveness,
Perceived Loss of Control, and Irritation

Mariko Morimoto

University of Georgia

Susan Chang

University of Miami

Table of Contents

Abstract

Introduction

Literature Review

Definitions of Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (Spam) and Postal Direct Mail (Direct Mail)
Factors Influencing Consumer Attitudes toward Direct Marketing Channels

Method

Participants
Measures

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Limitations and Future Research

References

Abstract

In 2005, marketers spent over $52.2 million on direct marketing efforts (Advertising Age 2006). In comparison to other media, more than $26.7 million was spent on network television and approximately $29 million on newspapers (Advertising Age 2006). Direct marketing, particularly traditional postal direct mail and telemarketing, has been a popular technique for advertisers. The introduction of communication technologies, especially the Internet, has dramatically changed the communication strategies of direct marketers. In particular, the use of unsolicited commercial e-mail (“spam”) is becoming extremely popular due to its cost effectiveness (Verity et al. 1994) and its high potential for interactivity with target consumers (Mehta and Sivadas 1995).

According to Spam Filter Review (2003), among the 31 billion e-mail messages that are sent daily, 40% is spam. In fact, 66% of direct marketers indicated that their e-mail frequency has increased (Direct Marketing Association 2005). Still, the more important question lies in the audience’s reaction to this type of marketing communication. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reported that approximately 52% of their participants considered spam a big problem (Pew Research Center 2005). In comparison, 45% named pop-up ads and 31% listed computer viruses as being an issue. Furthermore, 67% said that spam has made their online experience more unpleasant or annoying (Pew Research Center 2005).

These statistics seem to suggest that the number of spam messages will continue to grow in the future. Unsolicited commercial e-mail has potentially become a significant problem in direct marketing that can negatively influence consumers’ attitudes and potentially create the type of backlash predicted by Psychological Reactance. Thus, to avoid this reaction, it is important that direct marketers carefully consider their use of the Internet when communicating to potential customers.

Although it may appear that the continuous growth of spam has the potential to replace traditional direct marketing communication channels such as postal direct mail (“direct mail”), this does not indicate that marketers should neglect traditional direct marketing communication methods such as postal direct mail. A survey conducted by The Direct Marketing Association in 2005 indicated that 59% of direct marketers have increased their postal mailing quantities in 2003; a 43% increase from 2002. Furthermore, 42% of practitioners reported that between 2003 and 2004, their use of direct mail has risen (Direct Marketing Association 2005). Although many marketers consider using new technologies to reach wider audiences in a more cost efficient manner, traditional direct mail is still regarded as an efficient way to reach consumers. As these examples demonstrate, the decision to be made by marketers is not between the two methods, but to determine the most effective and efficient mix of direct marketing communication methods to reach the target groups.

To identify the most cost efficient mix of direct marketing communication channels to effectively reach its target audiences, it is essential for marketers to understand the potential effects of each communication method. This is especially important for consumer evaluations because consumer attitudes towards advertised brands and purchase intentions are believed to be influenced by their advertising evaluations (Batra and Ray 1986; MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch 1986). Although both direct mail and spam have been a major force in recent direct marketing practices, there have been very few quantitative studies that compare the effects of both direct mail and spam on consumer attitudes toward these direct marketing communication channels. Because it seems that traditional direct mail and spam are likely to remain the predominant communication methods for direct marketers, studies that investigate and compare consumers’ attitudes towards these two popular direct marketing communication methods are called for. This study compares audience perceptions of advertising intrusiveness, loss of control, and irritation for direct marketing and spam that could lead to the backlash predicted by Psychological Reactance.

Before the discussion of potential links between constructs is presented, it is necessary to define spam and direct mail for the current study. Direct mail is identified as an unsolicited postal mail piece in which the sender has the intent of selling products and/or services to the recipient (Chang and Morimoto 2003). Solicited direct mail pieces, such as catalogues, that are sent to consumers who knowingly agreed to be added to mailing lists are not considered direct mail for the purpose of this study because audience perceptions between marketing communications that are sought differ in comparison to those that are not welcomed.

Spam is characterized as any commercial electronic communication from marketers that consumers did not ask for (Chang and Morimoto 2003). Similar to the definition of direct mail, commercial e-mail messages sent by marketers with the prior consent from consumers are not considered spam in this study. This study will use these definitions to refer to the two methods of direct marketing communication channels.

Factors Influencing Consumer Attitudes toward Direct Marketing Channels

This study outlines three factors that may predict consumer attitudes toward direct marketing communication channels regarding the use of direct mail and spam: (1) perceived advertising intrusiveness; (2) perceived loss of control as a function of Psychological Reactance; and (3) irritation caused by these marketing communication techniques.

Perceived Advertising Intrusiveness. One construct that could influence consumer attitudes is perceived ad intrusiveness. Previous studies have indicated that perceived ad intrusiveness consists of the following dimensions: interference with one’s privacy (Sipior and Ward 1995; Teeter and Loving 2001), cognitive process and/or task performance (Li, Edwards, and Lee 2002), and/or media content (Ha 1996). Based on these dimensions, perceived ad intrusiveness can be defined as the degree to which an unwanted marketing communication interferes with an individual’s cognitive process and tasks, as well as the interference with media contents including offensive materials.

From the perspective of consumer privacy, intrusion can be defined as invading an individual’s solitude, including intrusion of one’s private affairs (Sipior and Ward 1995; Teeter and Loving 2001). Sturges (2002) defines solitude as a space around an individual that is “to be left alone” (p. 211). While these definitions suggest a more legal aspect of consumer privacy, they are applicable to advertising since ads may intrude upon one’s personal space (the mailbox, computer hard drives) and the time that it takes to answer phone calls from telemarketers.

Milne and Rohm (2004) extended this view about consumer privacy to promotion activities by emphasizing that intrusiveness is caused by unwanted marketer-initiated communications such as telemarketing, unwanted direct mail, and spam. In promotional situations, consumers have either low or no control over receiving unwanted commercial information (Milne and Rohm 2004), which may result in irritation. Consumers tend to find ads intrusive if they are unfamiliar with the advertisers or do not expect to receive ads. Sheehan and Hoy (1999) discovered that consumers do not tend to regard ads as being intrusive if they themselves have contacted the advertiser previously. Since the current study defines both direct mail and spam as unwanted ads from direct marketers, consumers may consider unwanted ads as an intrusion to their own privacy.

Another aspect of ad intrusiveness is represented by the disturbance of one’s task performance including one’s cognitive processing such as thinking. Based on the definition of Ha (1996) and Li, Edwards, and Lee (2002), ad intrusiveness is regarded as an individual’s cognitive process in which he/she may perceive ads to be disruptive of their thought process or activity. More specifically, such disturbance on the Internet can be an interruption of not only editorial content, but also task performance (Li et al. 2002). For example, individuals use the Internet for specific tasks, such as researching various issues or topics and e-mail corresponding. Because such endeavors involve more than pure enjoyment of the entertainment content and individuals tend to be more task-oriented when online, they may perceive online ads as being even more intrusive (Li, Edwards, and Lee 2002) than ads on other types of media. As a result, individuals may feel negatively towards the ads in general, perceive the advertised brands more negatively, and thus build unfavorable attitudes toward purchasing the advertised brands (Batra and Ray 1986; MacKenzie, Lutz, and Belch 1986). On the other hand, ads may be avoided altogether to perform their own tasks. A Pew Research Center (2003) survey showed that more than 86% of the 1,400 respondents deleted spam without even opening the messages.

In terms of direct marketing communication channels, findings from focus groups conducted by Chang and Morimoto (2003) suggest that participants generally found spam more intrusive than postal direct mail because spam can occupy a considerable amount of limited space in their electronic mailbox. This causes e-mail users to spend additional time to locate messages that actually matter, since spam creates the need to screen all messages (including spam) to decide which messages are safe. Pew Research Center (2003) indicated that approximately 10% of the respondents reported that they spend more than 30 minutes dealing with spam, and more than 50% of the participants say that they found it extremely difficult to get legitimate messages in their work-related mailbox due to spam. On the other hand, in the case of direct mail, consumers tend to find discarding unwanted pieces not as time consuming as deleting unsolicited commercial e-mail (Chang and Morimoto 2003). Thus, consumers are likely to find spam more intrusive than postal direct mail.

Moreover, ad intrusiveness can be related to the access of the editorial content in media products. Studying the effect of advertising clutter in consumer magazines, Ha (1996) defined ad intrusiveness as “the degree to which advertisements in a media vehicle interrupt the flow of an editorial unit” (p. 77). In general, an individual consumes different media formats for various types of editorial content. Advertisements in various forms, including print, television commercials, and Internet advertising such as spam and pop-up ads, are often in the way of the audience consuming editorial content. Although audiences generally expect advertising in consumer magazines and newspapers, marketing messages in media vehicles such as television or radio prevent individuals from accessing the editorial or entertainment content. This may lead audiences to feel irritated and react by engaging in zapping commercials on radio programs (Abernethy 1991) or TV shows, and/or flipping through print ads quickly to avoid these messages to get to the actual content of the media. In particular, spam can be more intrusive because new technologies allow e-mail messages to automatically direct the viewer to web sites (Chang and Morimoto 2003); while direct mail pieces can be easily discarded from mailboxes and facilitate receivers’ access to the actual media content.

Another potential element of perceived ad intrusiveness for spam is its content. According to research conducted by Brightmail Inc., a solution provider to spam, approximately 14.5% of spam is considered to include adult content (Greenspan 2003). Furthermore, Pew Research Center (2003) indicated that among 2,200 adults, 76% of respondents are bothered by offensive or obscene spam contents. These kinds of spam often automatically direct readers to another pornographic web site, and thus may be perceived as even more intrusive as they are likely to interfere with tasks in which individuals are engaged, which may result in a negative attitude toward the ad. Based on the issues regarding spam described above, the first two hypotheses for this study are drawn:

H1: Consumers are likely to find spam more intrusive than direct mail.

H2a-b: Ad intrusiveness caused by a) spam; b) postal direct mail negatively correlates with attitudes toward the advertising technique.

Psychological Reactance. Unwanted direct marketing communication messages may enhance the sense of loss of control in consumers’ mind. Perceived ad intrusiveness deals with both physical intrusion of time and space by ads, and consumers’ ability to enjoy actual media content, which is the main purpose of consuming media content. Brehm’s (1966) Psychological Reactance theory suggests that it is helpful to understand the relationship between ad intrusiveness and perceived loss of control. The theory suggests that when individuals frequently act counter to restrictions or pressures put upon them by external sources, they are likely to react against threats or loss of freedom and/or control by acting in the opposite way intended by the source (Brehm 1966; Brehm and Brehm 1981). In the context of consumer evaluations of advertising, if an individual finds ads intrusive, then he or she may also feel that the ads prevent them from accessing the editorial content, the ability to process information cognitively, and/or the performance of certain tasks. As a result, users may feel that they have lost the freedom to be engaged in particular behaviors and/or may feel that they have lost control of their own behaviors. Perceived loss of control can thus be defined as the degree to which a consumer feels a loss of control in conducting their own tasks due to the exposure to intrusive ads.

This perceived loss of control concept can be extended to suggest that the level of perceived loss by consumers is likely to be higher for spam than direct mail because of the more intrusive nature of unsolicited commercial e-mail. In fact, the Pew Research Center (2003) study indicated that the participants felt that spam, particularly those with adult content, are uncontrollable. This may be due to the large number of spam sent to one’s mailbox which makes deletion more time consuming and difficult, and/or new technologies that automatically redirect the audience to other commercial web sites, and/or unexpected direct marketing pieces sent without prior consent. Thus, in conjunction with Psychological Reactance, Internet users attempt to regain their control and pursue their tasks by deleting unsolicited commercial e-mail messages immediately without opening them (Pew Research Center 2003).

Sheehan and Hoy (2000) found that consumers tend to be more concerned about the invasion of their privacy when they become aware that marketers have acquired their e-mail addresses without their permission to send unsolicited commercial e-mail. Since e-mail addresses can be attained through public newsgroups and/or cookies placed on a consumer’s computer, consumer information collection is likely to be conducted without prior knowledge. Although it is still possible for marketers to collect information on consumers’ postal addresses to send direct mail communications, the ease in which personal information is collected online is likely to cause the sense of loss of control of personal information in consumers’ minds. Therefore, using Psychological Reactance as a framework, the third hypothesis is suggested:

H3: The level of perceived loss of control by consumers will be greater for spam than direct mail.

Irritation Caused by Direct Marketing Communication. A third factor that could influence consumer attitudes towards advertising is the degree of irritation. For this study, the construct of ad irritation is based on the definition proposed by Aaker and Bruzzone (1985): the negative, impatient, and displeasing feeling of individual consumers caused by various forms of advertising stimuli.

Previous studies have identified several potential factors that may trigger perceived ad irritation, such as advertised products, ad intrusiveness, and perceived loss of control in one’s behavior (Aaker and Bruzzone 1985; Aaker and Norris 1982; De Pelsmacker and Van den Bergh 1998; Edwards, Li, and Lee 2002; Fennis and Bakker 2001; Fritz 1979; Ha 1996; Li, Edwards, and Lee 2002; Stayman and Aaker 1988). Formats of direct marketing such as over-dramatized and contrived content and executions, as well as frequent ad placements can also be perceived as intrusive and may deprive a consumer of their sense of control and freedom to pursue their intended tasks. Characteristics of ad stimuli that could cause irritation are represented by several notable criticisms on advertising such as targeting the wrong audience, manipulative messages, misplacements (placing ads in inappropriate slots), excessive repetition within a short amount of time, and forced exposures (Li, Edwards, and Lee 2002; Rotzoll, Hall, and Haefner 1996). These traits are certainly applicable to both direct mail and spam. For example, messages that are clearly intended for males are often times sent to females, the promise made by marketers is “too good to be true,” and/or communications often continue to appear in one’s e-mail inbox or post office box even after requests by the recipient to cease such commercial messages.

In the context of direct marketing communication practices, past studies have indicated that spam tends to cause a higher level of ad irritation upon an individual than direct mail. Focus groups conducted by Chang and Morimoto (2003) revealed that the participants tended to feel more irritated by spam because they thought that spam prevented them from performing their intended tasks such as checking e-mail messages from professors, friends, and family members. Even though software designed to filter unwanted e-mails is available for consumers to block spam, consumers are also concerned that these filtering devices may block important incoming e-mail messages (Pew Research Center 2003), which may result in interference with their task performance. In other words, perceived loss of control may mediate the relationship between ad intrusiveness and ad irritation. As a result, the following fourth hypothesis is proposed:

H4: Perceived loss of control mediates the relationship between ad intrusiveness caused by spam and ad irritation.

Since the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages that an individual receives on a daily basis is numerous, it is time consuming to self-filter and delete unwanted communications. In fact, Pew Research Center (2003) indicated that more that 75% of consumers found spam annoying due to its volume and/or repetitive nature, and that 40% spent five minutes or less to delete spam daily. Although five minutes may not appear to be a lengthy period of time, the time spent handling spam can often create a financial burden to end-users since consumers often subscribe to fee-based online services and/or they must pay the fee to store/send e-mail as well as phone lines to connect to servers (Cranor and LaMacchia 1998; Samoriski 1999). Such financial costs, along with the extra time allotted for deletion to regain freedom and control to pursue intended activities may make consumers extremely annoyed with spam.

On the other hand, postal direct mail does not require much time and/or additional financial costs for consumers in general. That is, if consumers find direct mail unnecessary, they can discard it immediately. Unlike spam, audiences are not required to go online to discard or read these physical direct marketing pieces. Furthermore, end-users are generally not interrupted from their task at hand, unlike spam. In this sense, consumers may find direct mail less annoying than spam.

Regarding the content of advertisements, previous studies have indicated that people are annoyed or bothered by spam due to their potentially offensive materials (Chang and Morimoto 2003; Nordlinger 2002; Pew Research Center 2003). Pew Research Center (2003) suggested that more than 75% of their 2,200 participants felt annoyed by offensive or obscene spam materials. Receivers of such e-mail messages may be uncomfortable or embarrassed because they worry that others may think that they might have requested the messages or visited pornographic web sites, although this is generally not the case (Nordlinger 2002). Meanwhile, the contents of direct mail tend to be less offensive, and direct mail pieces often feature sales promotion items such as coupons that may benefit consumers (Chang and Morimoto 2003). While spam may have coupons embedded within the text of the communication piece, consumers are often still required to use their own resources to print them out to use in retail stores. Coupons included within direct mail pieces do not require additional resources from the recipient for consumers to enjoy the same benefits. This characteristic may decrease the level of ad annoyance for postal direct mail when compared with spam. Based on these assumptions, the final hypotheses are formed:

H5: Consumers are likely to experience a higher level of advertising irritation from spam than direct mail communications.

H6a-b: The degree of advertising irritation caused by a) spam; b) postal direct mail is negatively correlated with attitudes toward the advertising technique.

Method

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of postal direct mail and unsolicited commercial e-mail on ad irritation perceived by consumers. Three constructs, ad intrusiveness, perceived loss of control as suggested by Psychological Reactance, and ad irritation, were measured to assess how these variables may influence one another, as well as the level of ad irritation based on the different types of direct marketing communication channels.

Participants

Undergraduate students from a large Midwestern university were recruited to voluntarily participate in a survey for this study. After conducting a pilot study (N=43) to check reliabilities of the measures, participants for the main survey (N=119) were randomly assigned to either the direct mail (n=62) or spam survey (n=57). The surveys were different only when the items pertained specifically to their attitudes about the intrusiveness and irritations of either direct mail or spam.

The final sample size contained 34.5% male and 65.5% female participants. The mean age of the sample was 20.1 years. With regard to education level, the sample consisted of undergraduates who were sophomores (65%), juniors (44%), and seniors (10%). In addition, a majority of the participants have at least one major credit card in their own name (95%), have purchased goods through mail order (53.8%), have purchased goods through the Internet (91.6%), and have an e-mail account other than the university’s (85.7%). These characteristics are important because they are likely to increase the chances of these participants having some experience with both direct mail and spam.

Measures

Items were modified from previous studies to measure five constructs (including potential covariates for this study): (1) perceived loss of control; (2) ad intrusiveness of either postal direct mail or unsolicited commercial e-mail; and (3) ad irritation of either postal direct mail or solicited commercial e-mail; as well as (4) attitudes towards the advertising medium (spam or postal direct mail); and (5) attitudes toward direct marketing as a practice in general (measured as a potential covariate).

Psychological Reactance (perceived loss of control). Modifying items from the scale created by Dowd, Milne, and Wise (1991), Psychological Reactance was measured using a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) with items such as “I have a strong desire to maintain my personal freedom,” “I resent authority figures who try to tell me what to do,” and “I enjoy debates with other people.” (a=.83).

Ad intrusiveness. Using the advertising intrusiveness scale from Li, Edwards, and Lee (2002), participants were asked if they strongly agreed (1) or strongly disagreed (7) that spam or postal direct mail was distracting, disturbing, forceful, interfering, intrusive, invasive, and obtrusive (a=.97).

Ad irritation. Using a seven-point semantic differential scale anchored with 12 items such as “appealing/unappealing,” “positive/negative,” and “pleasant/unpleasant” (Fritz 1979), ad irritation caused by either postal direct mail or unsolicited commercial e-mail was measured (a=.97). Positive adjectives received a score of 7 and negative adjectives received a score of 1. The average score of these 12 items was used to represent the “ad irritation” variable (1=most irritating; 7=least irritating).

Attitudes toward the Advertising Medium. MacKenzie and Lutz’s (1986) six-item semantic differential scale with items such as “good/bad,” “favorable/unfavorable,” “pleasant/unpleasant,” and “convincing/unconvincing” was used to measure attitudes toward either postal direct mail or unsolicited commercial e-mail (a=.92). Positive adjectives received a score of 7 and negative adjectives received a score of 1. The average score of these 6 items was used as the “attitudes toward the advertising medium” variable (1=least favorable; 7=most favorable).

Direct marketing attitudes. A total of eleven items (Table 1) were used to measure general attitudes towards direct marketing practices. Six items from Akhter and Durvasula (1991) such as “Direct marketers sell high quality merchandise” and “Direct marketers are trustworthy” and five items derived from the focus groups conducted by Chang and Morimoto (2003) such as “Direct marketers provide useful products/services” and “Direct marketers do not offer product/services targeted toward me” were used (a=.82).

Table 1.
Items used to measure attitude towards direct marketing methods in general (alpha=.82) (1=Strongly Disagree and 7=Strongly Agree)

Results