Description of the procedure of the focus group discussions

Initially, the moderator of the focus group discussion explaines in a very general way what a focus group discussion is about, what the role of the moderator within a focus group is and what is meant by the definition of advertising. Next, the participants are invited to introduce themselves to the other members of the group to get to know each other. More concrete, the moderator prepares small cards where the probands has to fill in their name, age, highest completed education, occupation, nationality, body weight and if they are happy with their body weights () or if they want to loose some kilos ().

Being in a position to answer the research question of how women are actually represented in advertising and the media and the sub-reasearch questions of whether advertising portrays women in a working role (a less traditional role), for example, would it make the product more desirable than if women are represented as, say, housewives or mothers or in a sexual-object or fashion-object role and what are the reasons for their attitudes, how women perceive the representation of beautiful and slim women in advertising and the media and what their reasons are for their attitudes; how women perceive the representation of women in advertising and the media in a humiliating, degrading or even violent way and what are the reasons for their attitudes; how women perceive the representation of such advertisements like Dove´s campaign and what are the effects of such kind of advertising on women on

empirical level, the group members are asked to write down and explain afterwards their top of mind associations with regard to the representation of women in advertising and the media. One main reason behind it is to define spontaneous ideas of the members when thinking of the representation of women in advertising. In this context the definition of advertising ranges from advertising campaigns on print basis such as magazines or newspapers, audio campaigns such as radio spots to various campaigns in television.

Furthermore, this study deals in more detail of the topic of representation of women in advertising and the media. More concrete, the moderator focusses the various roles and stereotypes with regard to the depiction of women in advertising, according to Holtz-Bacha (2011).³⁷⁷ In particular, the respondents are asked about their opinion and their explanation of the representation of women in advertisements in these various roles and stereotypes. In particular, women are depicted in: dominating roles;

occupational roles including the representation of women in expert roles; non-occupational roles including women as sexual objects, housewives and mothers;

beauty roles focussing on the depiction of women as young, slender, lean and attractive with wrinkle-free - and depilated skin, as well as beauty roles with concern to sporty, dynamic, health-conscious and vital women, but also beauty roles with regard to mental health and plastic surgeries; equating products with the target group of woman; age and racial/ethnic minorities. This part is closed with the demonstration of the well-known Dove´s campaign that is somehow different to common advertising campaigns because well-rounded women act as female testimonials for representing personal-care products. The moderator defines how the respondents perceive this kind of representation of women in advertising and why it is their opinion. Objective of this part is to define main deviations and/or similarities of respondent´s arguments compared to literature. Furthermore, this thesis defines explanations and attitudes why the members of the group discussions think in a certain way.

Besides this, this thesis focusses on answering the research question of how women want to see themselves represented in advertising and the media on empirical basis. Thus, the moderator of the discussion group once again applies to the various roles and stereotypes already discussed. Initially, the interviewer tries to

377 cf. Holtz-Bacha (2011), p. 90 ff.

summarise the participant´s arguments from the previous part and asks them in a next step to evaluate each defined role/stereotype whereby the ranking ranges from 1 to 3. Futhermure, they should explain in more detail why they are thinking in a certain way. 1 means “I do not really care about the portrayal of women in that certain kind of way and thus a change is not desired”, 2 stands for “I desire that women are portrayed in that certain kind of way to a lesser extent” and 3 means “I desire that women are portrayed in that certain kind of way to a greater extent”.

This part of the focus group discussion is closed with a discussion about decisions when buying products based on gender and how advertising campaigns should look like with regard to issues such as idealistic versus realistic -, emotional - versus non-emotional -, personal - versus impersonal -, informative - versus entertaining advertising campaigns and the diversity of buying behaviours in diverse situations of life.

Objective of this part is once again to define deviations and/or similarities of respondent´s arguments compared to literature. In addition to this, this paper tries to define explanations and attitudes why the members of the group discussions think in a certain way.

Moreover, it is also important to define what are the implications of these differences of how women are actually represented in advertising and the media and of how women want to see themselves represented in advertising and the media on the selection of products/advertising campaigns for the advertising and media sector.

The focus group discussions are closed with the intention to answer the research question of what are the implications of these differences of how women are actually represented in advertising and the media and of how women want to see themselves represented in advertising and the media on the target group of woman. Being in a position to deal with this question efficiently, the moderator focusses on the various implications such as low self-esteem, social fears, higher dissatisfaction with the own body, dieting and as a consequence thereof Anorexia Nervosa/Bulimia Nervosa, increased use of wellness spa´s or beauty farm or even plastic surgeries and asks for respondent´s opinions and attitudes.