Impact of Strategic Ambiguity Tagline on Billboard Advertising for Consumers’ Attention

It has become difficult for marketers to attract consumers to their ads and brands in the prevailing competitive world. Therefore, the marketers have adopted different advertisement strategies, including ambiguity in the tagline. It is an effective technique because it forces consumers to think about ambiguity in the tagline. Given its importance, we have developed a model that examines the impact of attitude, perception, and brand motive on ambiguity in the tagline. It also examines the moderating role of brand image on attitude and ambiguity in the tagline. The study has distributed 450 questionnaires to private business universities in Karachi and received 427 questionnaires. Using Smart PLS tested five hypotheses which our results and past study supports. The study found that attitude, perception, and brand motives significantly affect tagline ambiguity. Tagline ambiguity affects customer attention, and brand image moderates attitude and tagline ambiguity. Based on the literature and results, we recommend that marketers create ambiguity in their advertisement messages. Since it generates attention and consumers spend considerable time deliberating the real message behind the ambiguity. It also allows organizations the flexibility of changing their value propositions.


Introduction
Billboard is not a new concept. In 1796 the printers created the first illustrated poster for advertisements. Subsequently, people started looking for suitable locations to install posters to attract customers' attention. The literature suggests that local merchants in the US ventured into roadside advertisements (Samanta, Woods & Ghanbari, 2009). These merchants installed the posters outside the telegraph office since it was a crowded place. Thus people used columns and boxes for mounting the posters. Advertisers since then have used innovative techniques to improve the effectiveness of the billboards. It is inclusive of three-dimensional and digital billboards (Wang, Yu, Guo, Yang, Ma, Liu, & Xiong, 2022).
Billboard is an effective tool for communication with consumers. Since its inception, marketers have brought many innovations in billboard advertising, including strategic ambiguity tags. Billboard is outdoor advertising, and marketers place it in those locations visible to pedestrians and motorists. Its communicative effect on consumers is significantly higher than other advertising mediums (Schirm, 2010;Zekiri, 2019). Marketers use ambiguous taglines to stimulate consumers' interest. It also allows firms flexibility in the offered value propositions (Pietsch, 2021;Schäfer, 2020). Researchers have not extensively studied this phenomenon even though organizations use tagline symbols and code, as they promote multiple interpretations and allow firms to achieve multiple goals (Johansen, Aggerholm & Frandsen, 2012). Firms use the symbols and logos encoded in high abstraction levels, and their interpretation is unclear unless consumers pay more attention (Nwankwo-Ojionu, Adzharuddin, Waheed & Khir 2021;Hoffjann, 2021).
Past studies have mostly focused on the effect of the location of billboards and found it significantly affects consumers' attitudes toward brand image (Marciano, 2020); Rahmat, Purnamawati, Saito, Ichwan & Lubis, 2019). Other studies examined the impact of colors and messages on consumers' attitudes and attention (Liyana Abdullah, & Sajarwa, 2021). Only a few studies have examined the antecedents of tagline ambiguity and its effect on attention consumption. Given this gap, the study has developed a conceptual framework with the following objectives.

1.
To examine the impact of attitudes, perception, and brand motives on strategic ambiguity tagline 2.
To ascertain the moderating effect of brand image on attitudes and strategic ambiguity tagline.

3.
To measure the impact of strategic ambiguity tagline on consumers' attention.

Strategic Ambiguity
Researchers argue that open communication with clarity in the messages promotes consumers engagement and positively affects brand image perception (Tshuma, 2021). Similarly, Sundar and Cao (2020) believe that simplicity in the messages is critical for effective communication and such messages have a sustainable impact on consumers' memory. When a message in an advertisement has ambiguity and connotations that lack clarity, it refers to a strategic ambiguity message (Martin & Pajouh, 2019;Brown, McDonagh & Shultz, 2013). In contrast, many researchers believe that ambiguous and abstracted messages promote consumers engagement without restricting them to specific interpretations. Such messages allow firms to change their value proposition without changing their communication strategies (Marie-Cappelen & Strandgaard-Pedersen, 2021). Aurelia-Ana (2018) stresses that ambiguity in advertisements and tag lines enables firms to achieve multiple and contradictory organizational goals.
At the same time, such flexibility is not possible in simple messages and taglines. Deliberate ambiguous messages promote different interpretations of the same set of symbols. These messages can be targeted to a certain segment or across diverse segments (Gilliam, Muñoz, Jiménez, Kim & Kyle, 2021). Current research also documents that complexity in the meaning of advertisement messages captures target consumers' attention, leading to enhanced brand image (Juliana & Arafah, 2018). Many firms consistently use ambiguous messages to persuade consumers to develop positive purchase intentions toward brands (Hartati Panah & Matsom, 2021). Individuals infer the meaning of a message based on their perception. Thus, two customers may draw two meanings from one message (Lou, Tan & Chen, 2019). Many researchers argue that invariability and clarity apart from the message content also depend on the message's "senders and receivers" (Johansen, 2018). Past studies have documented how firms use multiple interpretations and goals to benefit organizations. For example, parties use ambiguous messages in their advertisement campaigns rather than giving a firm answer to past activities and commitment to plans (Smith, Atkin & Roznowski, 2006). Another study on print media advertisement found that ambiguity in the advertisement positively affected attitudes towards products and services (Oryila & Umar, 2016). Researchers believe many firms, through ambiguity in their messages, tend to misinform consumers, entertain consumers, evade truth, and make efforts to make their products or services more plausible than they are (Sánchez & Simour, 2021;Nasar, 2020).

Tagline
A tagline can communicate the brand personality attributes to consumers in a few words (Dirwan, Themba & Latief, 2021;Shahid & Ashfaq, 2021). The famous tagline of Nike is "just do it, " and Apple is "think different-but not too different. " Tag lines help capture consumers' attention with catchy short sentences and communicate the value proposition to the target consumers (Munthe & Lestari, 2016). Thus a successful tagline immediately draws consumers' attention and promotes a sustainable relationship with the brands (Do, 2019;Dores, 2016 ). Successful tag line stimulates multiple interpretations in consumers, due to which they debate on varied meanings, leading towards brand engagement.
Given the importance of taglines, many advertisements use attractive and catchy taglines to increase their marketing share by retaining old ones and attracting new ones (Nurhayati, Hasanah, Kurniasi, & Rahmasari, 2018). The tag line reflects the brand and its activities and encourages consumers to patronize it. For example, many consumers would not mix with "Finger licking. " "Medicine" or "non-edible products. " Other famous tag lines explaining brands' usage are "everyone can fly" and "Life is good. " Tur and Pratishara (2018) assert that tag line can be based on any geographical location and may not focus on engaging consumers in the product and services of the firm. Many researchers believe that taglines now always carry direct meaning and may have multiple interpretations (Juliana & Arafah, 2018), including "lexical and syntactic. " Lexical relates to the length of words in the tag or slogan. At the same time, syntactic is the "organization and the procedure of parts of speech, which includes modifiers. " .

Consumers' Attention
The visual theory assumes that consumers are attentive to advertisements aligned with their visual needs. The factors contributing to consumers' visual needs are the combination of stimulus and features in the ads (Km, & Subratha, 2021). Researchers also believe consumers' attention towards an ad varies from one consumer to another. For example, some consumers' attention approach is "top-down selection, " and other consumers' selection is "bottom up-selection" (Jouttijärvi, 2019).
Kyllingsbaek (2006) extended Bundesen et al. (1990) theory of visual attention (TVA). The theory postulates that consumers process visual components in parallel sequence. At the same time, consumers place visual objects in their short-term and long-term memory (Sharma & Roy, 2021). Consumers' selection speed and priority for visual objects depend on "bottom-up" or "top-down. " The researchers also believe that consumers process visual components in a serial format. They initially focus on the color, followed by font and size (Liu et al., 2018). Fox, Nakhata & Deitz (2019) suggest that sequential processing is slower than parallel processing. Parallel sequencing allows consumers to visualize several components concurrently. Consumers focus on one component in sequential processing and then on another.

Consumers' Attitude towards Taglines
Consumers' attitude to tagline is associated with the consumer's experience with the brand over a long period and from prior experiences about the brand, communications with the customers (brand connections), brand awareness, brand recall, and brand positioning. Ideally, attitude is a "proximal determinant" of comprehension (Khaola, Potiane & Mokhethi, 2014). The taglines are shorter or longer, but the research suggests the shorter tagline are more appropriate for mobile applications and browsers. The websites initially used the tagline "Don't sell my info, " which many websites replaced with the tagline "Don't sell. " Although the websites switched to the shorter version, they intended to communicate that they do not sell customers' information. Shortening the tagline became problematic as customers were unsure whether the intended message was that the websites do not sell personal information (Hong, Ng, Yusof & Kaliappan, 2021). Many studies have examined the impact of cultural differences on designs and tagline appeal (Xie, Mandel & Gardner, 2021). A cross-cultural study between Korea and the United States found that American brands are less dispersed than Korean brands. The study also found that the Korean tagline contains more valuable content than the American tagline (Liu, Sprott, Spangenberg, Czellar & Voss, 2018).
Marketers assert that taglines are a major tool for communicating the value proposition and reinforcing consumer memory and attention to the brand. Similarly, a study in automobiles found that the brand tagline in this sector was more effective in changing consumers' attitudes than brand equity and brand association (Nayeem et al., 2019). The study concluded that brand credibility moderates the association between attitudes and tagline. Extant literature also suggests that the tagline's imperative sentences, personification, and metaphors significantly correlate with attitudes (Martin & Pajouh, 2019). Many studies, including Mantonakis (2012), have documented that "a brief pause between a tagline and brand increases brand name recognition and preference. " Another empirical experiment documented that "encoding priming through a temporary delay or pause between meaningful stimuli like tagline and brand" promotes brand recognition (Septianto et al., 2020). Extant literature also suggests that incompleteness in the taglines promotes sentiments towards the brand and stimulates a sustainable relationship with it (Heberle & Gierl, 2020).

H1A: Consumer attitude significantly affects strategic ambiguity.
H1B: Brand image moderates the relationship between attitude and strategic ambiguity.

Perception towards Tagline
Consumers are generally less attentive to concurrent advertisements. Therefore marketers keep changing the advertisement without deviating from the core value proposition (Thapa, 2021). A tagline may communicate a certain message, but the conveyed messages significantly depend on consumers' perception of the stimulus in the tagline. Consumer perception of a tagline depends on its experience, brand image, and positioning. The extant literature documents a variation in the conveyed messages and how consumers have perceived them (Chatterjee, 2019;Cheema et al., 2016). The perception of a tagline depends on its sustainability and does not change frequently. Consumers must recall the tagline from a marketing perspective and associate it with the brands. Recalling a tagline and not associating with the brand is a profound weakness of the tagline (Gupta et al., 2020). Marketers create ambiguity in the tagline and advertisements by pausing the tagline words. This strategy promotes cognitive thinking in consumers as they deliberate and debate on the pause or sufficiency of the words in the tagline. The study presents two examples of ambiguity in the tagline. Volkwagen'slogan "Somewhere between tuxedo and birthday suit. " This slogan does not communicate anything definite about the products but forces the consumers to form an association (Aichner, Coletti, Jacob & Wilken, 2020).
Similarly, the tagline of Apple's slogan is "Think differently, avoid using differently" (Niessen, 2021). The message motivates consumers to interpret what "different" relates to (Michalik & Michalska-Suchanek, 2016). The perception of discrepancy may stimulate recognition later, but it may also promote "systematic memory errors under some circumstances (Mykola, Vadym, Lokutova, Anatoliy, & Romaniuk, 2020). Many researchers believe that the color used in the advertisement captures the audience and, despite the ambiguity in the tagline, communicates brand personality and promotes purchase intention (Pareek & Kumar, 2018).

Brand Motives using Taglines
Marketers create and use taglines to "arouse, apprehend and achieve multiple goals for the organization. " (Pareek & Kumar, 2018). The extant literature suggests that advertisers deliberately use ambiguity in the taglines to stimulate multiple interpretations. Strategic ambiguity "elucidates the framework of the sender's motives, message content and individual metamorphoses" (Asako, 2019). A high level of abstraction can promote multiple interpretations for seeking consumer attention. Nike's tagline "just do it" is an effective strategy for inspiring professionals and upcoming athletes to succeed in their careers (Penta, 2018;Mohan & Ferguson, 2020). Also, Nike aims is to maintain its social media presence with its tagline as it promotes Nike's brand and sales. Many past studies have documented that firms use suitable languages in their advertisement for the sustainable growth of their brands (Septianto, Seo & Zhao, 2021).
Sunder and Cao (2020) assert that consumers develop undesirable attitudes towards unbiased brands (Polite). At the same time, they develop positive attitudes when advertisements use biased language (less polite). Moreover, Zehra and Minton (2019) stress that advertisers should use religious cues by comparing Islam and Christianity in their advertisement messages. Firms use religious cues to target the selected audience and spread shared respect for "God. "

Impact of Strategic Ambiguity Tagline
Taglines in Advertisements promote brand identity, enhance brand awareness, stimulate curiosity and give a competitive edge over competitors (Michalik & MichalskaSuchanek, 2016). Many researchers, including Dirwan et al. (2021), have documented that ambiguous taglines have a favorable and significant impact on consumers' attention and purchase intention. Brand attention and brand recall are precursors of purchase intention. Therefore they are of strategic importance, and according to many researchers, ambiguous taglines help achieve them. Boxman-Shabtai (2020), Devarai and Shetty (2010) undertook a study in the non-alcoholic beverage segment on the taglines and their impact on consumer recall and brand awareness. The study concluded that firm' changing their messages in the taglines decreases brand awareness and recall. At the same time, firms with persistent and consistent messages in the taglines enhance brand recall and brand memory. These findings in our opinion contradict the literature that suggests that consumers receiving the same messages over a while pay less attention to them. Thus we argue that the marketers should change the messages without deviating from the main theme of their value proposition unless firms have changed their value proposition. One of the advantages of ambiguity in taglines is that they sublimely work in the mind of consumers, and it has no contingent on being consumers' favorite brand (Dhanyasree & Kumar, 2018). In a study on Kit Kat, Cheema et al. (2016) found that taglines do not significantly affect brand perception, but they promote a strong brand association. Munthe and Lestari (2016) examined the impression of "rhetorical devices in Wendy's taglines. " The study found a strong association between words, phrases, and polysemy in taglines and audiences appeal. Thus, many fast foods use phrases and polysemy in their tagline. Some successful taglines of fast food are as follows. Mcdonald's tagline is "I am loving it. " Burger king's tagline is "Be Your Way" (Lee, 2017;Kohli, Thomas & Suri, 2013). These are the perfect examples of successful ambiguity taglines. Both these taglines do not explicitly state "Burger. "

Participants
The study focuses on private business students in Karachi. We have focused on this segment because these students know the concepts related to the subject study. This knowledge allows them to understand the subject's complexities, and we believe their inputs bring more insight to the issue. The study has calculated the sample size based on a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error, which comes out to 387. The calculated response rate for the study is about 95%, which is appropriate for consumers' related studies.) response rate can decrease the collected sample; therefore, we, through enumerators, have distributed 450 questionnaires and received 427 questionnaires. The profile of the respondents is as follows. Of the total respondents, 57% for females, and 43% were males. Marital status suggests that 27% of the respondents were married, and 73% were single. In terms of employment, we found that 20% of the respondents were working full-time, 25% were doing part-time jobs, 10% were entrepreneurs, and the rest were full-time students. We found that 55% of the respondents pursue MBA and 45% BBA degrees in education.

Measures
We have adopted the questionnaire from earlier studies. The constructs, sources, numbers of items, and reliability values in past studies are depicted in Table 1. All the items used in the study were based on a rating scale of 1-5 (1=highly disagree, and 5=highly agree), excluding demographic questions, which were based on a nominal scale.

Data Analysis
We used Smart PLS because it gives the model predictive power compared to other software. The data analysis used in the study includes reliability, validity, discriminant analysis, and the model's predictive power. Also, we have generated a structural model for hypothesis results

Results
We have initially generated a measurement model using the Smart PLS version. The model is presented in Figure 2, and other related results in the subsequent section.

Descriptive Analysis
In Table 2, we have presented the results related to descriptive analysis, including internal consistency analysis and univariate analysis. The results suggest that Cronbach's Alpha values range from 0.802 to 0.856. The lowest Cronbach's Alpha value is for perception (Mean= 3.792, SD= 1.117, α=0.780), and the highest is for Brand Motives (Mean= 3.592, SD= 1.102, α=0.856), suggesting that the constructs used in the study have acceptable internal consistency on the data set collected from Karachi (Flatt & Jacobs, 2019). The results also support univariate normality since all the Skewness values ranged from -1.585 to -1.963, and the Kurtosis values ranged from 1.121 to 2.390 (Knief & Forstmeier, 2021).

Convergent Validity
The study assessed the convergent validity "based on AVE and composite reliability values. " And we have used Fornel and Larcker's (1981) criterion for discriminant values. The study has summarized the results in Table 3. Carslon and Herdman (2012) suggest that for convergent validity, AVE values of the constructs should be greater than 0.50, and composite reliability should be at least 0.70. Since our results meet these criteria, it is safe to assume that the constructs converge on the present data set. Moreover, our results also fulfill Fornel and Larcker's (1981) criteria suggesting that the used construct is unique and distinct.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis
The study has used CFA to find a theoretical association between latent and indicator variables. The results presented in Table 4 show that all the factor loadings are greater than 0.70 suggesting a significant association between the constructs.

Predictive Power of the Model
Smart PLS can assess the model's predictive power through R-squared and Q-squared values. The study has used the same and presented summarized results in Table 5 and

Model Fit Indices
The study has used four commonly used fit indices to assess the model's fit. Results presented in Table 7 suggest that the model fit is adequate. As SRMR values are lesser than 0.08, and NFI values are greater than 0.80, it suggests that the model fits adequately.

Structural Model
The study has used bootstrapping for generating the structural model results. The results are presented in Table 8, and the structural model in Figure 3.
Our results support all the hypotheses. We also found that the strongest impact was on the association between strategic ambiguity and consumer attention (β=0.628), and the lowest impact was on the association between the moderating effect of brand image on attitudes and strategic ambiguity.

Discussion and Conclusion
We have discussed the results and their relevance to the past literature in the following sections.
The study found that consumer attitudes have significantly affect ambiguity, and brand image moderates the attitudes and ambiguity in the tagline. The study has validated the earlier studies of Nwankwo-Ojionu et al. (2021), and Liu, Sprott, Spangenberg, Czellar and Voss (2018). Marketers assert that taglines are a major tool for communicating the value proposition and reinforcing consumer memory and attention to the brand. Similarly, a study in automobiles found that the brand tagline in this sector was more effective in changing consumers' attitudes than brand equity and brand association (Nayeem et al., 2019). Extant literature also suggests that the tagline's imperative sentences, personification, and metaphors significantly correlate with attitudes (Martin, 2019). Many studies, including Mantonakis (2012), have documented that "a brief pause between a tagline and brand increases brand name recognition and preference. " The study has extended earlier studies that found perception significantly affects tagline (Chatterjee, 2019;Cheema et al., 2016). Consumers are generally less attentive to concurrent advertisements. Therefore marketers keep changing the advertisement without deviating from the core value proposition (Thapa, 2021). Consumers must recall the tagline from a marketing perspective and associate it with the brands. Recalling a tagline and not associating with the brand is a profound weakness in the tagline (Gupta et al., 2020). Marketers create ambiguity in the tagline and advertisements by pausing the tagline words. This strategy promotes cognitive thinking in consumers as they deliberate and debate on the pause or sufficiency of the words in the tagline. The study presents two examples of ambiguity in the tagline. Volkwagen'slogan "Somewhere between tuxedo and birthday suit. " This slogan does not communicate anything definite about the products but forces the consumers to form an association (Aichner, Coletti, Jacob & Wilken, 2020).
Our results support the association between brand motives and tagline, which are in line with the earlier literature (Penta, 2018;Septianto, Seo & Zhao, 2021). Marketers create and use taglines to "arouse, apprehend and achieve multiple goals for the organization" (Pareek & Kumar, 2018). The extant literature suggests that advertisers deliberately use ambiguity in the taglines to stimulate multiple interpretations. Strategic ambiguity "elucidates the framework of the sender's motives, message content and individual metamorphoses" (Asako, 2019). A high level of abstraction can promote multiple interpretations for seeking consumer attention. Nike's tagline "just do it" is an effective strategy for inspiring professionals and upcoming athletes to succeed in their careers (Penta, 2018). Also, Nike aims is to maintain its social media presence with its tagline as it promotes Nike's brand and sales. Many past studies have documented that firms use suitable languages in their advertisement for the sustainable growth of their brands (Septianto, Seo & Zhao, 2021).

Conclusion and Implications
Based on the sample of 427 students from Karachi business universities, the study tested five hypotheses, which the results and past literature support. The study found that consumer attitude is a significant antecedent of consumer attention. And consumers' attitudes, perceptions, and brand motives significantly affect tagline ambiguity. The study also found that brand image moderates attitude and strategic ambiguity. Given the highly competitive markets, consumers are exposed to hundreds of stimuli every day. Marketers use different mediums to gain consumers' attention, including billboard advertising. Extant literature suggests billboard advertising, compared to other mediums, is more effective. Generally, marketers place their billboards in prominent places with high vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Based on the literature and results, we recommend that marketers create ambiguity in their advertisement messages. Since it generates attention and consumers spend considerable time deliberating the real message behind the ambiguity. It also allows organizations the flexibility of changing their value propositions.