The phenomenon of advertising blindness : A qualitative case study of how a Swedish interior design company tailor their e-commerce marketing strategies to cope with the phenomenon of advertising blindness

Abstract: This bachelor thesis researches the question of “How do Swedish interior design companies tailor their e-commerce marketing strategies to cope with the phenomenon of advertising blindness?” through a qualitative case study. In order to conduct this research, relevant aspects of the phenomenon have been analysed in relation to actual marketing strategies. By following the qualitative methods with a semi-structured interview and content analysis, a deeper understanding of the phenomenon and how Swedish interior design companies cope with it can be gathered. The thesis follows a deductive approach, due to that the research topic in the specified industry was considered rather unexplored, thus a better preunderstanding of the topic was deemed relevant. The existing knowledge and research have been compiled and resulted in a conceptual framework. The pre-existing studies on advertising blindness have been conducted in other industries; this thesis will thus be founding its analysis on previous studies but in a new industry with different types of consumers and marketing. The analysis of the empirical findings encompassed a discussion about how theoretical models and practical marketing methods are used by a Swedish interior design company. The conclusions drawn from the analysis present both implications, recommendations, and limitations. The empirical findings showed that advertising blindness is not a phenomenon actively planned against in the interior design case company that was researched for this thesis. The main theoretical implications derived from this thesis, was giving marketing students and marketing managers insight into the importance of understanding the advertising blindness phenomenon. The main practical implication was found to be that although certain KPI are used to monitor consumer behaviour and purchases, advertising blindness has not been prioritized in the measurements. Thus, as omni channels such as the case company have to increase their focus on e-commerce, the attention to advertising blindness has to be more present from managers. Furthermore, a continuation of this research would find value in conducting research from the consumer perspective in order to give marketing managers a second perspective that could show the importance of studying advertising blindness.