ABSTRACT
The study was an extension research on analysis of purchase behavior of advertised and non advertised products among consumers in the non alcoholic drinks market in Abia state. The objective of the study were to : ascertain the perception of consumers patronage of advertised and non advertised brands in the study area. Compare respondents perception between advertised and non advertised. Determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics of respondents on the patronage of advertised and non advertised brands in the target market. A well structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data for the study which were analyzed with probit models. The study findings were that gender was significant at 1% and positively influences the choice of advertized and unadvertised product in the study area that educational level was also significant at 1% and positively effect the exposure and effect of the advertizing on the consumer purchase behavior of non alcoholic drinks in Abia State. That the quality perception of the target respondent is also positively at 1% and influence the brand choice of the non alcoholic drink in the study area however the study recommendation are that advertisement of products especially in the consumer market should be encouraged this will help create, not only brand awareness but sales. The use of quality media should be adopted for household consumer goods in the study area. Advertising messages and gimmicks should consider the educational level of the respondent in the study area.
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Title
page i
Declaration
ii
Certification
iii
Dedication
iv
Acknowledgment
v
Table
of content vi
List
of table ix
Abstract
x
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study 1
1.2 Statement
of the Problem 3
1.3 Objectives
of the Study 6
1.4 Research
Questions 6
1.5 Research
Hypotheses 6
1.6 Significance
of the Study 7
1.7 Scope of
the study 8
1.8 Definition of Terms 8
1.9 Limitations of the study 8
CHAPTER
TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
2.1:
Conceptual Framework 9
2.1.1 Meaning
and Concepts of Advertising 9
2.1.2 Objectives
of Advertising 12
2.1.3 The Role
of Advertising 15
2.1.4 Advertising
Budgets and Appropriations 16
2.2
Theoretical Framework 22
2.3 Empirical Review 23
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research
design 25
3.2 Area of
Study 25
3.3 Population
of the Study 26
3.4 Sample
and Sampling Technique 26
3.5 Sources
of Data Collection 26
3.6 Method of
Data Analysis 27
3.7 Model
Specification 27
3.8 Validity 28
3.9 Reliability
28
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1 Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents 29
4.2 Comparison
between consumers’ perception between advertised 30
and non
advertised brands
4.3 Effect
of socio-economic characteristics on the patronage of 31
advertised brands in the study area
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 35
5.2 Conclusion and Recommendations 35
REFERENCES 37
QUESTIONNAIRE
41
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: The socio-economic profile of
the respondents 29
Table 4.2: The paired-Z differences of the
perception (amount spent on the purchase)
of advertised brands and non advertised brands. 30
Table 4.3: the maximum likelihood estimate
of the effect of the
socio-economic characteristics on the
patronage of advertised brands in
the
study area. 31
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Advertising
is one of the marketing strategies, and also a basic element of the marketing
communication and promotional strategy directed to influence the consumer
perception and patronage to product brands, especially in the consumer market
(Kotler, 2000).
One
of the major reasons for the adoption of advertising in the consumer product
marketing is to not only communicate and create product awareness of the
product but also to induce purchase. This is to justify the philosophy behind
the selling concept of marketing which states that consumers can only purchase
products if they are influenced and motivates to buy the product (Kotler and
Armstrong, 2006).
Thus,
for marketing of consumer products to be effective, it call for more than
developing the product, pricing it attractively and making it accessible to the
target market. Producers must communicate with consumers to influence the
perception and patronage of the product brand, otherwise, the consumer
perception of the advertized product will invariably differ from the
unadvertised product brands (Kotler and Keller, 2003).
It
is through planned advertising, in relation with the influence of other
elements of marketing communication that the marketer will open the “Black
Box”, by creating the awareness of the product brand, not only for
communicating the brand availability, but also to motivate, modify and or
sustain the responsive chord buying behavior or the consumption pattern of
target consumers (Anyanwu, 2003).
Therefore,
advertising is defined as any form of non-personal communication through the
mass-media that is paid for by a firm so as to attract and influence customer
patronage and buying behavior (Roger, 2004).
This
definition is of the view that there is always comparative difference of
consumer’s perception between advertized and non-advertized product brand. The
reason for this is because the product positioning. This is possible because of
the fact that it is through advertising that the customer value measured by the
index of the product quality, relative price, and expected or perceived service
performance of the product brand are projected to the target market to enhance
customer loyalty, customer equity and relative equity (Offionodon, 2000).
Advertizing
product brands creates the message impact on arousing interest and familiarity
with the product brand. Such will help in the consumer brand identification,
perception and differentiation of the brand from related competitors brands of
the same product.
In
order to achieve the above objectives, advertising message should be designed
in such a way that the message will positively influence the perception of the
product brand by the consumers. This will help in the integration and
organization of information about the brands and the interpretation of the distinctive
product attributes such as price, quality etc. Specification will help in brand
preference and choice in the product adoption process. But such perception
criteria will be lacking if the brand is not advertised to the target market
(Roger, 2004).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Advertising
is an indispensable tool in marketing of consumer goods and services. It is one
of the marketing communication elements used to persuade the identification and
patronage of a product brand.
The
advertisement of consumer product brands goes to a large extent to influence
the consumer perception of branded products, against the perception of
non-advertized consumer product brands.
This
study was set out to examine a comparative analysis of consumer’s perception of
advertised and non-advertised product brands. But in the mental process
involved, the consumers perception map and the marketers interpretation,
observation and measurement of this perception phenomena are constrained by
some problems, some of these problems are discussed here in:
The
cost of advertising, the media choice and the unpredictability if the consumer
behaviors are some of the problems facing the effective designing of
advertising messages to influence the consumer’s perception of the product
brand. This is because of limited resources which the marketing operations are
competing for and the dynamic nature of the consumer buying pattern are not
usually easy to be determined (Anyanwu, 2003).
Consumer’s
perception about an advertized product is usually influenced by the media used.
Ineffective media may influence poor perception of the consumer about the
product being advertised.
Thus,
media reach and frequency which are the capacity of media to get to a group of
target audience and the number of times the message is repeated would influence
(message) learning, and reinforcement.
Therefore,
the evaluation of the reach and frequency of the advertising message about a
product brand as they affect consumers perception of the advertised brand is
always a herculean task (Roger, 2004).
Ethical
issues in advertising also pose problems in the perception of product brand
advertising on the part of the consumer and the general society. Despite the
fact that advertisement helps in creating positive perception about the
product, some criticize advertising messages.
Thus,
majority of the people perceive advertisement messages as negative for the
advertized product, owning to the reason that a good number of them are
deceptive and misleading (Kuma, 2000, Chanter and Rishi, 2003). Hence, ethical
perspective and government regulations are also paramount in designing
advertising messages to influence consumer’s perception of product brands.
The
measurement of the specific impact of advertisement on the consumer’s
perception product brand is usually very difficult to appraise. This is because
other elements of marketing communication and relative promotional strategies
like sales promotion, personal selling among others may still contribute in
influencing the consumer’s perception of the advertised brand.
Therefore,
advertisements carry over and promotional spillovers make it cumbersome in the
determination of the categorical impact of advertising in influencing the
consumer’s perception of the advertised consumer product brand (Inyanga, 2004,
Ra, 2002).
On
the other hand, some marketers leave some of their product brand unadvertised.
This implies that after the production of the product, they believe that the
product possess superior quality that can attract customers perception towards
the product such marketing practice is a reflection of says law which
postulates that “supply creates its own demand”. That mass production is
producing for the masses (Berger, 2004). This leads to mass marketing which
leads to neglecting the role of advertising in the marketing communication and
promotional strategy of the firm. But such practice will neither boost sales
nor shift demand of the firm in the right direction (Boniface et al, 2007).
1.3 Objectives of the
Study
The
major objective of the study is to analyze the purchase behavior of buyers of
advertised and non advertised products of non alcoholic drinks market in Abia
State.
However,
the specific objectives are to:
i.
ascertain the perception
of consumers patronage of advertised and non-advertised brands in the study
area;
ii.
compare respondents
perceptions between advertised and non-advertised
iii.
determine the effects of
socio-economic characteristics of respondents on the patronage of advertized
and non-advertised brands in the target market,
1.4 Research Questions
The
under listed questions will be used to guide the study:
i.
what are the difference
between the perceptions of advertise and non-advertized brands?
ii.
what is the comparison
between the perception of advertized and non-advertized brands?
iii.
what is the effect of
socio-economics of advertised and non-advertized brand?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
Some
research hypotheses were designed to guide the study. They were stated in the
null form as follows:
Ho1: There is no significant relationship between
the consumers perception of advertised and non-advertised brands.
Ho2:
Education, sex, age, income and household size do not have any significant
effect on consumer perception of advertised and non-advertised brands.
1.6 Significance of the Study
It
is hoped that the findings and recommendations will assist the consumer to make
better and informed choices in his decision to purchase consumer products. It
is believed that the marketer, researcher etc have some gains to make out of
the research. Marketers generally, and marketers of consumer products will see
the research as a source of knowledge to bring innovation into product
advertising, in influencing customers perception of their brands.
The
outcome of the study will also constitute source of data for further research,
especially in discovering and evaluating the media choice and message for
consumer product brands.
In
the academics, the study will add to the body of existing literature and
knowledge of students.
Lastly,
it is also believed that research will assist the government and the general
public to see advertising practices as some of the avenues for generating
income to both the government and practitioners through the source of
employment, engaged in the media choice and practices.
1.7 Scope of the study
The
study will be limited to the consumers of non alcoholic drinks in Abia State.
The findings of the study will be used to make recommendations.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Marketing concepts:
Is the philosophy of business in which the marketing activities consider the
customer satisfaction as the road map for successful business activities.
ü Societal marketing
concept: This is of the view that it is good to
target customer need and satisfaction in every marketing activity.
ü Customer patronage:
Is the act or process of patronizing a particular products or sources.
1.9
Limitations of the study
There are many limitation been encountered by the
researcher during the period of getting information and that has affected this
work adversely. The first difficult task
was how to combine the writing of this work and preparation of my exams.
Secondly, lack of finance and resources also
restricted this research work to an extent.
The writer in spite of the account on the difficulty encountered,
returns all glory to God.
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