Casino Royale : Brand Avoidance and Advertising Among Generation Y in Sweden

Abstract: Background:  Online casinos are rising in popularity, and the number of people in Sweden who gambled online in 2018 is an all-time high. At the same time, the amount of money that online casinos spend on advertisements is also at an all-time high. Brand avoidance is receiving more attention from scholars as it is as important to know what makes consumers not want to consume, as it is to understand what makes them want to consume. Advertisements have been identified to contribute to the behavior of brand avoidance.        Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to explore and gain insight into what aspects of advertising contribute to brand avoidance among generation Y, and to narrow down the scope, the online casino industry in Sweden is explored. A research question was implemented to reach valuable findings.   Method: To fulfill the purpose of this study, a qualitative research methodology was applied. The collection of qualitative data was retrieved from focus groups and semi-structured interviews among generation Y consumers. By exploring the aspects contributing to brand avoidance, an abductive research approach was useful, advocating discussion and development of new theory. To justify an appropriate target population, a non-probability judgement sampling technique was utilized.   Conclusion: The empirical findings from our study suggest that six aspects contribute to advertising brand avoidance in online casino advertising, namely; content, auditory cues, emotional response, advertising ethics, preconceived notion of industry and frequency. Consequently, we identified the subcategories of attractiveness, focus on wins, message about rapid payment and/or cash-out, focus on female gamblers and brand name and slogan for the aspect of content. For auditory cues, found subcategories included; music, sound effects, narrative voice and jingle. There was no evidence of a specific sequence, but a dynamic interrelationship between the aspects.