Comparison of attitudes of generation Z with generation X and Y towards social responsibility advertisements using neuromarketing methods

Businesses' responsible actions towards environmental and social problems are increasingly recognized by consumers. This situation makes it an important requirement for businesses to show sensitivity to problems in society and the environment and to adopt the principle of sustainability. The fact that businesses act with an understanding of environmental and social social responsibility positively affects consumers' perceptions and attitudes towards these businesses. Consumers perceive businesses that attach importance to corporate social responsibility activities as more sensitive, ethical and reliable. This, in turn, strengthens the image and reputation of the business and enables the establishment of long-term relationships with consumers. Businesses use many methods to communicate their corporate social responsibility activities to consumers. Corporate social responsibility advertisements, which are among these methods, have recently been frequently preferred by businesses. In order to effectively communicate corporate social responsibility advertisements to consumers, businesses should choose an appropriate persuasion technique by taking into account the characteristics and preferences of their target audiences. In this way, the corporate social responsibility activities of businesses are better understood and perceived more positively by consumers. This study examines the responses of generation Z (born in 2000-2012), generation X (born in 1965-1980) and generation Y (born in 1981-1999), which constitute the majority of the target audience of businesses, towards corporate social responsibility advertisements using the Stimulus-Process-Response (SOR) model. In this model, the effect of environmental social responsibility advertisements with different message attractiveness (positive, negative and rational attractiveness) preferred as stimuli to the generations on the process of the generations' approaches towards the environment, their level of arousal towards the advertisements, their attention values and their perceptions towards the advertisements are determined as the response stage. Within the scope of the research, 45 participants residing in Afyonkarahisar province were selected using convenience sampling method. The physiological and visual responses of each generation to environmental social responsibility advertisements with different message appeal were measured. Arousal levels were determined with neuromarketing techniques such as GSR (galvanic skin response) and attention values were determined with eye tracking and face coding methods. After the neuromarketing measurements, a questionnaire was administered to the participants. With the questionnaire method, the generations' levels of recall of messages, slogans and brands of different commercials and their perceptions of each commercial were determined. While the commercials were shown to the participants, the physiological and visual reactions of each generation to environmental social responsibility commercials with different message appeal were measured. In addition, questions on environmental knowledge, environmental concern and conscious consumption factors, which have been identified in previous studies to have an impact on responses to environmental commercials, were also included in the questionnaire form. The findings of this study reveal intergenerational differences and the effects of different advertising appeals. In the study, Generation Z exhibited a higher level of arousal and positive perception in social responsibility advertisements with rational appeal and remembered the brands, slogans and messages of these advertisements better than other advertising appeals. However, no statistically significant difference was found between Generations X, Y and Z in terms of corporate social responsibility advertising Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility Advertisements, Advertising appeal, Generations, Neuromarketing