ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to examine the comparative analysis of consumer perception of advertised and non-advertised brands in Abia State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to examine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, compare respondent’s perception between advertised and non-advertised brands in the target market, determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics of respondents on the patronage of advertised and non-advertised brands in the target market; and make recommendation based on findings. The respondents were selected with a random technique from three senatorial zones of Abia State according to the different local government that represents them. Therefore 45 were selected from Umuahia to represent Abia Central, 45 respondents were selected from Isikwuato to represent Abia North and 45 respondents were selected from Aba to represent Abia South. Hence 135 respondents were selected in the research process. Primary source of data was employed in this study in which a structured questionnaire was distributed to respondents in order to solicit information for the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as frequencies, means, percentages and binary logit model. The mean age of the respondents was 14years. The minimum 35years, 7 months while the maximum is 60 years. They have spent a mean of 161/2 years in school, minimum of 6 years and maximum of 22years in school. The average household size was one person, with a minimum of 4 persons and a maximum of 9 persons. On the basis of their income, the mean income was N10, 000.00 monthly, while their minimum and maximum income was N102, 140.00 and N250, 000.00 respectively. The result also showed that gender, age, monthly income and household size were significant at 99 percent confidence level and was positively significant in influencing advertising. In comparing the consumers’ perception of advertised and non-advertised brands, the amount spent on each of these was used as proxies for the perception. This was borne out of the fact that consumers can only patronize what they perceive is of high quality and what they can afford to buy. With the finding of this study in mind, the following recommendations are given with the hope that it will help to improve advertising efficiency in the consumer perception of advertised and non-advertised brand. It is recommended that: Only quality brands should be advertised, this is because the respondents assume that advertised brands are of high quality and patronize them more. This will also influence consumers to be brand loyal customers. The purpose of advertising in creating awareness and influencing purchase decisions can be achieved through effective campaign aimed at a well selected target irrespective of the age group in a chosen market segment. Income of consumers should be enhanced because it has been known that increase in income could lead to increase in family expenditures on health, education etc. so if income of consumers is not enhanced there may not be any money/income readily available for the purchase of these advertised items.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page i
Declaration ii
Certification iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Table of contents vi
List of tables vii
Abstract ix
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 3
1.3 Research Questions 6
1.4 Objectives of the Study 7
1.5 Research Hypothesis 7
1.6 Significance of the Study 8
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 9
2.1 Meaning and Concepts of Advertising 9
2.2 Objective of Advertising 12
2.3 The Role of Advertising 16
2.4 Advertising Budgets and Appropriations 16
2.5 Evaluating Advertising Effectiveness 22
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 25
3.1 Area of Study 25
3.2 Sample and Sampling Technique 26
3.3 Sources of Data Collection 26
3.4 Method of Data Analysis 26
3.5 Model Specification 26
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS 29
4.1 Socio-economic characteristics of the respondents 29
4.3 Comparison between consumers’ perception between advertised and
non advertised brands in the study area. 30
4.4 Effect of socio-economic characteristics on the patronage of
advertised brands in the study area 31
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 35
5.1 Summary 35
5.2 Conclusion and Recommendations 36
REFERENCES
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: The socio-economic profile of the respondents
Table 4.2: The paired –Z differences of the perception (amount spent on the purchase) of advertised brands and non advertised brands Paired differences
.
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
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 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).
However, this study is poised to examine these and other related problems and to find solutions thereto.
1.3 Research Questions
The following questions were designed to guide the research:
i. What are the socio-economic characteristics of the target respondents?
ii. What are the effects of advertising in influencing the consumer’s patronage of advertised and non advertised brands in the target markets?
iii. What are respondents perceptions between advertised and non-advertised brands?
iv. What are the effects of socio-economic characteristics of the respondents on the patronage of advertised and non-advertised brands?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
The major objective of the study is to compare consumer’s perception of advertised and non-advertised brands in Abia State, Nigeria.
However, the study seeks to achieve the following objectives which are to:
examine the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents;
compare respondents perceptions between advertised and non-advertised
determine the effects of socio-economic characteristics of respondents on the patronage of advertized and non-advertised brands in the target market, and;
Make recommendation based on findings.
1.5 Research Hypothesis
Some research hypotheses were designed to guide the study. They were stated in the null form as follows:
Ho1: There is no significance 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 gins 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.
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