CHAPTER ONE 

1.1    INTRODUCTION              

The rapid growth of information technology has enhanced the importance of online advertising. Out of the innovations of the information technology, internet is by far the most attracting considerable media. Moreover, the internet is emerging as the most important source of information because of its ease wealth of information. Furthermore consumers shopping online may modify or change the way they search for information to take advantage of certain characteristics of the internet (Peterson and Merino, 2003) With the growing age of the internet and the increasing trend of people using the internet, and the increasing trend of people using the internet for shopping and searching, the marketers are facing a lot of competition in order to keep in mind what the consumers are looking for and hot to target them.  There are four factors affecting the consumer buying behaviors namely Psychological, Social, Personal and cultural. In some studies the cultural factor has been taken separately but in most studies the cultural factors come under the social factors. For this research the psychological factors will be taken into account and the main focus will be on the beliefs and attitudes of the consumers.Online advertising became popular in the early 20th century in the United States. Internet advertising continues to grow and capture the attention of traditional and new direct marketers. Online stores can do many of the things like the real stores such as display products, offer special deals, take orders from customers, and process credit card transactions. The only thing that is extra is to add a shipping charge and then process the shipping. In the beginning, the consumers only relied on the internet for information. They would search for the products online, look up for the alternatives but were hesitant to buy it. But with the passage of time and increase in awareness, consumers now shop online. At first, only luxurious items were purchased online. Owing to awareness, consumers now shop online. At first, only luxurious items were purchased online. For example, laptops, cameras etc. But now-a-days people in the more developed countries often buy their groceries online.  The inclination of people towards online advertising in Nigeria is also in its infancy period. The people are somewhat reluctant to buy things online, this is because of the increasing trend of online frauds and because of this trend, and the websites could not be trusted fully.             Various Researches carried out in the past has proven that the average man watches over 40,000 commercial ads in a year which is quite many. Some companies such as Proctor and Gamble, AT&T spend up to 4 billion dollars a year on advertising. The official definition of advertising is an impersonal one way mass communication about a product or service that is paid for by the marketer. Advertising, public relation, sales promotion and personal selling are all essential parts of the promotional mix of a marketing plan. Advertising is everywhere and reaches consumers all day. The amount companies spend on advertising is amazing. Advertising also plays an important role in developing sales and market share. In general, most companies need to spend an enormous amount of money on advertising to maintain their market share and to keep their company and its products on top of their consumers minds, they need to use advertisements as reminders, if not the competitors will be able to steal some of their market share and sales. Traditionally companies that are either smaller or new in market share have to spend a larger amount on advertising that their big competitors. The reason behind this is called advertising response function. As a promotional strategy, advertising serve as a major tool in creating product awareness in the mind of potential consumer to take the eventual purchase decision. Advertsing, sales promotion and public relations are mass communication tools available to the marketers. Advertising through all medium influence audiences, but the internet at this moment is becoming one of the strongest medium of advertising due to its mass reach, it can influence not only the individuals attitude, but his behavior, lifestyle, exposure and in the long run even the culture of the country (Latif and Abideen 2011).             Consumers are the final end users of the products; they keep the production cycle moving. Consumers do play a vital role in the economic system of any nation, thus any nation will face crises if the consumers don’t have the effective demand for goods produced. According to Cohen (1988), advertising is a business activity that employs creative techniques to design persuasive communication in mass media that promotes ideas, goods and services in a manner consistent with the achievement of the advertiser’s objective, the delivery of consumer satisfaction and the development of social and economic welfare. (Cohen, 1988). From Cohen’s definition, it can be found that advertising satisfies three objectives; to increase sales of the firms, to guarantee consumers a great deal of services and finally to ensure the social and economic welfare of the society. Advertising has thus, a stimulating influence on the purchasing behavior of the consumers. Consumers demand different things based on their task and preference for them. Awareness of goods influence consumers purchase of that good.   

1.2        Problems of study        

     With the growing age of the internet and increasing trend of people using the internet for shopping and searching, internet Advertising which in recent times have being utilized by all companies due to the accessibility and wider coverage than the traditional media seems to be the most recent means for adverts.

The question now is, does the internet advertisement prove to be very effective than the traditional media? 

Do people buy product due to internet advertisement?

What other factors influence the way people see advertisements? 

1.3        Research Objectives 

The objectives of this work include the following:      (i)          To ascertain the rate of online advertising exposure to students  

  (ii)         To ascertain if online advertising influence consumer buying behavior  

(iii)        To discover the factors that influence students of Federal Polytechnic Bida’s view of internet advertising.