ABSTRACT
This research work identified and analyzed the
impact of advertising on the purchase of Etisalat recharge cards, a case study
of Auchi Metropolis. Information were gathered through primary and secondary
sources. The analysis and test were carried out in reliable statistical
techniques such as frequency distribution table and the use of a chi-square,
null hypothesis, alternate hypothesis and simple percentage. This study was
designed to examine the extent to which advertising help in informing,
persuading and influencing consumer purchasing decision of Etisalat recharge
cards. This research work identified that advertising only show the good
quality of the product but hide the bad aspect. Recommendations were also made
to manufacturers on the need to fill and stretch their line of etisalat
recharge cards, control their channel and to conduct their periodic resource
not only to withstand the wind of change but also to measure the effect of such
marketing activities on demand and because marketing is merely a civilized form
of warfare which most battles are won with words, ideas and discipline
thinking.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Title
Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table
of Contents vi
Chapter One: Introduction 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Research Problems 6
1.3 Objectives of the Study 7
1.4 Significance of the Study 8
1.5 Scope of the Study 9
1.6 Limitation of the Study 9
1.7 Research Questions 10
1.8 Statement of Hypotheses 11
1.9 Operational Definition of Terms 11
Chapter
Two: Review of Related Literature 14
2.1 Historical Background of Etisalat Recharge Cards 14
2.2 Relative Influence of Advertising 15
2.3 The Effect of Advertising on the Product Life Cycle 18
2.4 The Role of Advertising in Nigeria 26
2.5 Measurement of Advertising Effectiveness 30
2.6 Advertising Strategy as a Stimulator of Brand
Preference 31
2.7 Advertising and the Cultural Background of the
Target Market 34
Chapter
Three: Research Methodology 44
3.1 Research Design 44
3.2 Population of the Study 44
3.3 Sample/Sampling Procedure 45
3.4 Source of Data Collection 45
3.5 Validation of Instrument 47
3.6 Method of Data Analysis 47
3.7 Cut Off Point/Decision Rule 38
Chapter
Four: Presentation and Analysis of Data 49
4.1 Presentation of Data 49
4.2 Data Analysis 50
4.3 Hypothesis Testing 64
4.4 Discussion of Findings 67
Chapter
Five: Summary of Major Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations 69
5.1 Summary of major Findings 69
5.2 Conclusion 70
5.3 Recommendations 71
5.4 Suggestion for Further Research 73
References 75
Bibliography 76
Appendix 78
Questionnaire 79
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background of the Study
At the heart of
management, is that all levels of responsibilities lies on fundamental
requirement of being able to communicate.
Advertising is a form
of external communication. At the core of advertising lies the information,
knowledge of how consumers respond to different strategies and how these
strategies might effect the image of the organization and their product.
Advertising is a paid
form of non-personal communication or presentation and promotion of ideals,
goods and services by an identified sponsor (America Marketing Association,
[AMA] 1960). Advertising message can be transmitted to consumers through mass
media such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, mass
transit, vehicle and outdoor display.
Advertising to some
extent is the most viable element of the promotional mix like sales promotion,
personal selling and publicity. Among all these, advertising seen to play a
very important role in dissemination of business information to the target
market and the general public, at the same time, advertising attract plenty of
controversies as to its impact on consumer purchase decision. It is based on
this that Duncan
(1974) wrote that “provided the consumer is free, firstly to agree with or
ignore arguments and secondly to choose any particular product in preference to
another, there is little scope for condemnation of persuasive advertisement”.
It was also in support of this fact that the president and chief executive
officer of Etisalat produce stated that advertising and positioning of product
are almost everything.
There are people that
do not see anything good about advertising except that it deceived and cheat
consumers. It was with this view that Baster A.S.J. wrote that “the major part
of information advertising is and always has been a campaign of exaggeration half
truth, intended, ambiguity, direct les and general deception. Baber (1991,
p.12), it is in line with this argument and criticism that skilled
communicators exercise great powers in persuading and influencing their
audience with little or no room for the receiver to use their discretion
critics believe that advertising primarily promotes materialism, irrational
economic decision and make people to be morally and mentally corrupt. Neil, H.
Borden, in his book, the economic effects of advertising observed however that
the use of influence in commercial relations is one of the attributes of a free
society, just as persuasion and counter-persuasion are exercise freely in many
works of life in our society in the home, in the press, in the classroom, on
the pulpit, in the court of law, in the political forum, in the legislative
halls and in government agencies.
Notwithstanding these
controversies, huge amount of money are spent annually by both developed and
developing countries of the world on advertising. Irrespective of these
controversies, there are a lot of huge benefits of advertising not just to a
product but for the economy of a country and to enhance a country’s good public
relations that makes countries and business organization to invest on it. Good advertising
techniques portrays good image of a country, organization and its products.
This of course increases customers awareness of the organizational product
which will subsequently favour a country balance of trade through increased
demand and increase in organizational internal rate of returns.
On product, advertising
influences target groups as well as defend product. It could also build up
interest in product category assist in repositioning of matured product and
most importantly, exposes the features, benefits and uses of the product.
Though, it is argued
that there are some products that are more advertisable than others. It was on
this Stanton
(1991) quoting advertising authority Neil Borden, identified five products
criteria that suggest when advertising might be most effect.
i.
Primary demand
trend for the product should be favourable. Advertising cannot sell an etisalat
product that is in certainly unwanted by the target audience.
ii.
There should be
some features of differentiation of an etisalat product from those of the competitors.
Such etisalat features could be in the area of product, price, distribution and
promotional advantage using personal selling, sales promotion and publicity.
iii.
There should be
some hidden attributes of the etisalat produce which when advertised, will make
an impact on the receiver.
iv.
Emotional buying
motive should be presented. The etisalat product such emotion can be whipped up
by the advertising message.
v.
There should be
adequate fund and efficient media
vehicles at the disposal of the etisalat seller.
In all, the main
purpose of all marketing effort including advertising is to bring about
constant sales that will generate direct revenue to the sellers and
manufacturers of etisalat recharge cards.
It is persistent that
the most expensive and controversial variable of the promotional mix deserves a
more detailed in the field of consumer behaviour.
It is necessary to note
that advertising is just one of the elements of promotional mix which influences
consumer purchasing decision and as such it is hoped that the result of this
research will e better applied in connection with other influence variables in
the context of consumer buying behaviour.
1.2
Statement of the Research Problem
With the proliferation
of communication service providers there is every indication that there would a
be competition. Users of such services would not be able to make use of them
unless they are aware of the existence of such services. Etisalat recharge cards are relatively
new to the telecommunication market. If this recharge cards must be bought,
conscious effort has to be made by etisalat firm to advertise her product. A
cursory look at most advert we see in the television and other medias would
reveal that not much is said about etisalat products. It is in a bid to
encourage such a firm that this researcher had to undertake on this study. So
the problem of this study put in the question form is what is the impact of
advertising on the purchase of etisalat recharge cards.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The main objectives or
purpose of this research work is to investigate the extend to which product
advertising influences the decision to purchase of etisalat recharge cards.
The objectives of the
research stated in explicit term are:
i.
To examine the
extend to which advertising helps in informing, persuading and influencing
consumer buying decision of etisalat recharge cards.
ii.
To determine the
influence (if any) of sex, age, education, nationality and occupation on the use
and purchases of etisalat recharge cards.
iii.
To determine the
relationship between price and sales volume in an attempt to measure the
effectiveness of advertising.
iv.
To recommend
from the findings of this research how to apply advertising activities on the
different stages of the process for improved effectivness in sales strategy for
etisalat recharge cards products.
1.4
Significance of the Study
Essentially, this
research work is concentrated on indepth study of the advertising techniques
and strategies adopted in the sales of etisalat recharge cards and its
subsequent effect on consumer decision.
The relevance of this
research lies on the fact that its fruitfully outcome will be very instrumental
in solving the economic problems stemming from non or under advertising by
recharge cards manufacturers.
It is therefore the
researcher’s convention that the outcome of this research will also help the producers
of etisalat recharge cards by focusing their attention on the impact of
advertising on the purchase of etisalat recharge cards. It will enable the
companies know the techniques involved in advertising and the need to budget
some amount of money for effective advertising.
1.5
Scope of the Study
This research work is
undertaken to examine the impact of advertising on the purchase of etisalat
recharge cards brands in Auchi metropolis. However, in view of the nature of
this research work, adequate effort will be made to cover the whole Auchi
metropolis of Edo
State.
Nevertheless, it is
hoped that the outcome of the study will be applied to other parts of the
country after some reasonable necessary adjustment have been made.
1.6
Limitation of the Study
The major limitation of
this research work is bias on the side of the respondents, most of them felt
that the information needed was for some purpose other than this research work.
There was also the
problem of finance, the cost of getting the materials such as duplicating
papers, running round together necessary information from the respondents
constituted a major problem but with the help of God I was able to sail
through.
Finally, was the
problem of academics there was high tension and chicken-up programme at school,
the time for this research work was too short that the researcher overstretch
himself in the course of gathering the relevant information that will make this
research work worthy of acceptance. But irrespective of these problems, the
researcher has a high degree of reliance of the relevance of the data collected
and assures that the above hurdles did not invalidate the usefulness of this
study.
1.7
Statement of Hypotheses
The hypothesis that the
researcher made use of are as follows:
Hypothesis
I
Ho: Users of etisalat recharge cards do not have more
confidence in advertised brands of etisalat recharge cards.
Hi: Users of etisalat recharge cards have more
confidence in advertised brands of etisalat recharge cards.
Hypothesis II
Ho: Advertising of etisalat recharge cards do not
make people highlight the needs they would otherwise highlighted.
H: Advertising of etisalat recharge cards make
people highlight the needs they would otherwise highlighted.
Hypothesis III
Ho: Advertising cannot make members of the same family
like different brands of etisalat recharge cards.
Hi: Advertising make members of the same family like
different brands of etisalat recharge cards.
1.8
Operational Definition of Terms
Many items are used in
this exploratory research investigation. Therefore, the important terms used
are operationally defined according to the researcher’s purpose and context.
Hence, the terms are
defined as follows:
1.
Advertising: This
is any paid form of non-personal presentation of ideas, goods or services by an
identified sponsor.
2.
Attitude:
They means a person enduring favourable or unfavourable acquisition of
knowledge through thought or perception, emotional feeling and action tendency
towards some objects in ideas.
3.
Brand:
The researcher mean the name, term, sign, symbol or design of any combination
of them which is intended to identify the goods or services of one seller or
group of sellers and to differentiate them from those competitors.
4.
Market:
This is a set of all actual and potential buyers of a product.
5.
Target Market:
By this, the researcher mean a well defined set of consumers whose needs the
company plan to satisfy.
6.
Product:
A product is anything that can be offered to a market for attention,
acquisition, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need, it include
physical goods or ideas. It can also be seen as a set of any tangible and
intangible attributes, including packaging, colour, price, quality and brand,
plus sellers services and reputation.
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