CONTENT ANALYSIS OF USING CORE COMPETENCE ON ADVERTISING FOR AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

Abstract

In today’s competitive environment, the importance of sustainable competitive advantage is increasing. Core competence is one of the concept which help companies to providing sustainable competitive advantage. Core competence that today’s management concept provides sustainable competitive advantage to companies, not easy for competitors to imitate and contribute to the end consumer's experienced benefits and the value of the product or service to its customers. But, having just core competences for the companies is not enough. At the same time consumers need to be aware of these capabilities. At this point the most important tools for the companies is advertising.
In this study is intended to point out the case of using core competence of companies in advertising. First part in this study, conceptual framework about core competence presented, second part, companies’ web pages clearly examined in the automobile industry Honda and Volvo companies emphasize core competence as significantly and content analysis performed on last two advertisements for that companies. This study and results is to be a guiding study to subsequent studies and researchers.

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CONTENT ANALYSIS OF USING CORE
COMPETENCE ON ADVERTISING FOR
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Mehmet KIZILOGLU, Pamukkale University, mkiziloglu@pau.edu.tr
Tamer BARAN, Pamukkale University, tbaran@pau.edu.tr
Abstract
In today’s competitive environment, the importance of sustainable competitive advantage is increasing. Core
competence is one of the concept which help companies to providing sustainable competitive advantage. Core
competence that today’s management concept provides sustainable competitive advantage to companies, not easy
for competitors to imitate and contribute to the end consumer's experienced benefits and the value of the product or
service to its customers. But, having just core competences for the companies is not enough. At the same time
consumers need to be aware of these capabilities. At this point the most important tools for the companies is
advertising.
In this study is intended to point out the case of using core competence of companies in advertising. First part in this
study, conceptual framework about core competence presented, second part, companies’ web pages clearly
examined in the automobile industry Honda and Volvo companies emphasize core competence as significantly and
content analysis performed on last two advertisements for that companies. This study and results is to be a guiding
study to subsequent studies and researchers.
Keywords
Core competence, Advertising, Automobile Sector, Content Analysis.

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1. INTRODUCTION
Companies take part in the sustainable system with their ability of adaptation of the agenda. Companies use
their resources most efficiently and working to continue their existence. Automotive industry is one of the
world’s largest sector and its biggest source is customers. One of the aims of business is to find customers
and keep customers. Thus, companies want to establish a link between the customers and have their loyalty.
One of the tools which is used to achieve this is TV advertising. TV advertising effects on consumer beliefs
and attitudes, and behavioral effects which relate to purchasing behavior, for example, on brand choice.
Automotive companies want to emphasize the most important features in TV advertisement and create a
positive brand attitude. Therefore emotional reactions are important in TV advertisements (MacInnis ve
Jaworski, 1989). At this point one of the most features is core competence for companies. Some companies
use their core competence to create a positive brand attitude and have customer emotional reactions. The
best way of transfering it to the customers is ads.
2. METHODOLOGY
In this study, content analysis method was used to analyze whether the automobile brands with emphasize
on core competence in ads. Content analysis is one of the most important research techniques which is using
specific rules carefully and makes analysis to separate written, visual or auditory materials into meaningful
units in itself (Aaker et al, 2007; Krippendorff, 1989). Content analysis is defined as objective, quantitative
and systematic research method to make valid inferences from the data (Hussain et al, 2010). Malhotra
(2004) stated that content in the content analysis can be done according to the advertising character,
themes, oral statements, written statements, auditory elements and slogans. In the literature (Diamond,
1968, Ferguson et al, 1990, Turley ve Kelley, 1997, Ferraro ve Avery, 2000, Keller ve Schulz, 2010, Wang ve
Praet, 2013), numerous studies are available about analyzed the content of the advertisig.
Population of the study consisted of car brands that operate in Turkey. In this context, the web pages of 51
car brands examined, study’s authors realized that just Honda and Volvo brands stated core competence in
web pages of Honda and Volvo last two ads have been included in the scope of study. Ads published in
Turkey reached from video sharing sites.
Ads was watched by study’s authors to determine whether the emphasize on core competence in advertising
and required coding was done by using structured form. Units in content analysis are advertising character,
themes, oral statements, written statements, auditory elements and slogans. Theme, any expression in oral
statements, subtitles or e.t.c in written statements, any kind of sounds in auditory elements, slogans and
characters analyzed whether or not related to the core competence in advertisements of Volvo and Honda.
The reliability of the coding is interpreted and evaluated by the method of Cohen's Kappa. Cohen's kappa
coefficient is a statistical measure of inter-rater agreement for qualitative (categorical) items. Cohen's kappa
measures the agreement between two raters who each classify N items into C mutually exclusive categories.
This method is stated as a non-parametric statistic because of the result is categorical type. The equation for
κ is:
where;
Pr(α) is the relative observed agreement among raters,
Pr(e) is the hypothetical probability of chance agreement, using the observed data to calculate the
probabilities of each observer randomly saying each category.

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According to Cohen's Kappa method results in the range of -1 to +1. Landis ve Koch (1977) who
characterized values < 0 as indicating no agreement and 0–0.20 as slight, 0.21–0.40 as fair, 0.41–0.60 as
moderate, 0.61–0.80 as substantial, and 0.81–1 as almost perfect agreement.
3. LITERATURE REVIEW
Core competence as a managerial concept is at the centre of the development of business strategy. It is the
basic function of the competitive position of an organisation in the market. Business strategy development
is concerned with matching customers requirements (needs, wants, desires, preferences, buying patterns)
with the capabilities of the company, based on the skills and resources available to the business (Williams,
1992). This leads to the concept of core competence, defined as the combination of the business’ valuable,
difficult to imitate resources and competences which do not have any replaceable strategic alternatives.
(Barney, 1995).
Companies focus on core competence as the part of their business they must do and in which they must
excel. Any other activity can be sourced internally or externally as the company judges to be most efficient
(Hammer and Champy 1993; Peters 1992). Much work has been done since C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel
published their article, ‘The Core Competence of the Corporation’, to develop the construct of core
competence, as a number of researchers have proposed definition from a variety of perspectives. While
Prahalad and Hamel (1990) stated that there are at least three prerequisites that can be applied to identify
core competence within the company, which are: (a) provides potential access to a variety of markets, (b) to
contribute significantly to the final product the customer benefits, and (c) difficult to imitate by competitors.
Sources and capabilities are important for the company when it is to have value, rare and difficult to imitate.
These four dimensions of competence are value added, rare, difficult to imitate, ability to exploit,which are
important indicators in determining whether a competitive advantage can be sustained or not (Barney at al,
2001).
Core competencies are the qualities that give a company an advantage over their competitors. Companies
must know what they are good at and promote that area accurately. These competencies lead to
development of better products and services. Core competency must make a significant contribution to
customer and consumers need to be aware of these capabilities. At this point the most important tools for
the companies is advertising. Advertising is at the front of delivering the proper message to customers and
prospective customers. The purposes of advertising is to convince customers that a company's services or
products are the best, enhance the image of the company, point out core competence and create a need for
products or services, demonstrate new uses for established products, announce new products and
programs, reinforce the salespeople's individual messages, draw customers to the business, and to hold
existing customers (Taylor, 1978).
4. EMPIRICAL COMPONENT
Study 1 involves Honda's advertisement televised in Turkey in 2013 and 61 seconds. The ad is aimed to
provide optical illusion by using illusion method. In this way, ‘some things are not as they seem’ message is
given. At the end of the ad, written message about fuel consumption is shown and "itself is large, fuel
consumption is low" expression show that large cars can be lower fuel consumption. Rater A coded 4 of the
6 units and rater B coded 3 of the 6 units in content analysis of Honda emphasize engines knowledge. Raters
are fit about themes, oral statements and slogans emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge but auditory
elements and characters not emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge. Raters coded and evaulated the written
mesage of ‘1.6. i-dtec diesel, 4,5 lt./100 km fuel consumption’ and rater A say that this written message
emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge but rater B say opposite. According to these codings, reliability of
Cohen's Kappa coefficient between the raters is 0.600. This coefficient can be interpreted as a substantial fit
between the raters. Results for the coding are given in Table 1.

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Table 1: Comparison of raters coding on study 1
Rater B
Total
Yes
No
Rater A
Yes
3
1
4
No
0
2
2
Total
3
3
6
Study 2 involves Honda's advertisement televised in Turkey in 2013 and 116 seconds. In that advertisement
‘Honda tells 65 years history in the small ad movie’ slogan is used. A pair of hand seen in a white background
and ad begin. In the meanwhile ‘Let’s see what curiosity can do’ expression is used. Honda written over a
nut comes and hands converts this nut to engine. Then, this engine turns into motorcycle, car, boat,
lawnmower, etc. which Honda’s production and hears engine sound continuously. At the end of the ad a nut
comes again and stops in front of the hands. Raters are fit about themes and auditory elements emphasize
Honda’s engines knowledge but written message and characters not emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge.
Rater B say that slogans ‘Honda tells 65 years history in the small ad movie’ and ‘Let’s see what curiosity can
do’ emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge but rater A say opposite. According to these codings, reliability of
Cohen's Kappa coefficient between the raters is 0.333. This coefficient can be interpreted as a fair fit
between the raters. Results for the coding are given in Table 2.
Tablo 2: Comparison of raters coding on study 2
Rater B
Total
Yes
No
Rater A
Yes
2
0
2
No
2
2
4
Total
4
2
6
Study 3 involves Volvo's advertisement televised in Turkey in 2013 and 30 seconds and uses "City Safety"
slogan. The City Safety is an auto brake technology that assists in reducing or avoiding traffic accidents at
speeds up to 31 km/h made by Volvo. It is active at speeds up to 50 km/h on the Volvo. It uses laser sensor
that monitors an area approximately 6 m directly in front of the vehicle. The feature is programmed to
respond if the car in front is either at a standstill or is moving more slowly in the same direction as the car
itself. If City Safety determines a collision is unavoidable and the driver does not respond, it activates the
vehicle's brakes and switches off the throttle. This ad supported with words ‘security system reduced rear
end collision more than 20%’. Raters are fit about themes, oral statements and slogans emphasize Volvo’s
core competence of safety but auditory elements, written message and characters not emphasize Volvo’s
safety. According to these codings, reliability of Cohen's Kappa coefficient between the raters is 1.000. This
coefficient can be interpreted as a perfect fit between the raters. Results for the coding are given in Table 3.

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Tablo 3: Comparison of raters coding on study 3
Rater B
Total
Yes
No
Rater A
Yes
3
0
3
No
0
3
3
Total
3
3
6
Study 4 involves Volvo's advertisement televised in Turkey in 2013 and 29 seconds. This ad published with
‘pedestrian detection with full auto brake’ slogan and Volvo says vehicles fitted with the system will be able
to detect threats including a cyclist suddenly swerving out into a car's path. It said that if a collision risk was
detected an alarm would sound and the car's brakes would be fully deployed and seen ‘auto braking was
activated’. Raters are fit about themes, oral statements, written messages, auditory elements and slogans
emphasize Volvo’s safety but ad characters not emphasize Volvo’s safety. The written message of ‘auto
braking was activated’ emphasizes core competence of safety clearly. According to these codings, reliability
of Cohen's Kappa coefficient between the raters is 1.000. This coefficient can be interpreted as a perfect fit
between the raters. Results for the coding are given in Table 4.
Tablo 4: Comparison of raters coding on study 4
Rater B
Total
Yes
No
Rater A
Yes
5
0
5
No
0
1
1
Total
5
1
6
As a result of the content analysis, raters ensure a perfect fit in the Volvo ads study 3 and 4, while it is
observed that in the lowest fit in Honda’s ad study 2. Results for the reliability of Cohen's Kappa coefficient
between the raters are given in Table 5.
Tablo 5: Comparison of raters coding on study 4
Ads.
Cohen’s Kapa
Coefficient
Level of Fit Between
The Raters
Study 1
0,600
Substantial fit
Study 2
0,333
Fair Fit
Study 3
1,000
Perfect Fit
Study 4
1,000
Perfect Fit

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5. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
In this study is aimed whether or not to place core competence of Honda and Volvo brands in ads and last
two ads of them evaulated by content analysis. These criterias are theme, oral statements, written
statements, auditory elements, slogans and characters. As a result of the analysis, especially in Volvo’s ad
‘pedestrian detection with full auto brake’ emphasize Volvo’s core competence of safety and raters are fit
(study 4). In Volvo’s other ad ‘city safety’, rater are fit three criterias emphasize safety but three of them are
not (study 3). At this point, remarkable case is both raters express that advertising characters are not
emphasize Volvo’s core competence of security. Use of an advertising character which emphasize on safety
in Volvo's ads can help to reinforce the understanding of core competence.
Honda’s case is slightly different from the Volvo’s. Level of fit between the raters is lower than other ads in
Honda’s ad ‘Honda tells 65 years history in the small ad movie’ whether or not emphasize on core
competence of engine knowledge (study 2). In this ad raters are fit about themes and auditory elements
emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge. In Honda’s other ad ‘some things are not as they seem’, raters are fit
about themes, oral statements and slogans emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge but auditory elements
and characters not emphasize Honda’s engines knowledge (study 1). Both raters express that advertising
characters are not emphasize Honda’s core competence of engine knowledge in Honda’s ads.
As a result, Volvo’s ads more emphasize on core competence than Honda’s ads. Core competence more
clearly understood by consumers when Volvo emphasize on written statements and auditory elements in
other ad as in ‘pedestrian detection with full auto brake’ ad and use of an advertising character which
emphasize on safety. On the other hand Honda should be more emphasize on engine knowledge in
advertisements published in Turkey. Especially, emphasizing on written elements and advertising character
provide a better understanding by the consumers. The findings in this study will be guiding to subsequent
studies as level of perceived by consumers in ads emphasize on core competence and this perception affect
consumers' brand preferences in what level.
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