ABSTRACT

This study examines the impact of peak milk television advertisement on consumer’s buying behaviour in Edo State. In handling the study, four (4) research questions were put forward and they includes; what are the impacts of television advertisement on the sales and promotion of peak milk product? What is the extent to which television advertisement influences consumer to buying of peak milk product? What are the roles of television advertising in peak milk product and sales promotion? What level of influence does peak milk television advertisement have on consumer buying behaviours? The study was anchored on diffusion of innovation theory and the uses and gratification theory of the mass media. The survey method of research was adopted with the use of 17 item questionnaire distributed to 150 respondents in Benin City. Data was drawn through random sampling technique of non-probability. Data generated were presented and analyzed with the aid of simple percentages and frequency tables. Major findings showed that majority of the respondents use or are regularly have access to television set, That most of the respondents watch television advertisement, that exposure to television advertisement of a product influences consumers’ patronage of the product, that television advertisement help to increase the sale and promotion of products and services, that exposure to television advertisement of peak milk influenced consumers to buy the product,  that consumers’ use of a product were motivated by television commercials of the product, that the extent to which peak milk television advertisement influence consumers to buy the product was to a high extent, That the impact of television advertisement on product and sales promotion is influential, the study also showed that television advertisement of a particular brand make consumers prefer the brand over other brands, it further showed that there is a significant relationship and a positive relationship between television advertisement and increase in product sales and promotion. The study therefore recommends that, advertisers should first seek for a good advert agent to help then in doing a good advert, that advert should also be creative and contain music or phrase that will attract the audience, advert should be repeated as often as possible so as to retain potential consumers. It finally recommends that television advertising should occasionally be accompanied with incentives in form of gift items and promo to encourage audience continuous exposure.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Today, definitions of advertising abound. Journalists, for example, might perceive it as a communication, public relations, or persuasion process; businesspeople see it as a marketing process; economists and sociologists tend to focus on its economic, societal, or ethical significance. And some consumers might view it simply as an act to persuade them to satisfy their buying behavior. Each of these perspectives has some merit and demerit. Arens (2004) observes that Advertising is the structured and composed non personal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products (goods, services, and ideas) by identified sponsors through various media. APCON on the other hand described advertising as a communication in the media paid for by an identifiable sponsor and directed at a target audience with the aim of transferring information about a product, service, idea or cause.‟

Eluwa (2005) in the view of this, argues that Advertising is a form of non-personal method of communicating information which is usually paid for by a sponsor through various media. From the foregoing one can deduce that advertising is a persuasive communication, because it tries to persuade the reader, viewers or listeners to take to the sponsor’s point of view and also take some appropriate actions towards an object of advertisement. It is an obvious fact that advertising has in no small way helped to give more recognition to the business worlds. It brings the consumer in touch with the producer. It has to be noted too that advertising is a necessary social force for any economy growth and it has influenced the public taste to such an extent that product that is not advertised is considered as fallen into oblivion while businessmen who could not advertise have been forgotten. This is why, Carrena (1992) admit that advertising plays a vital and constructive role in society hence the advertising campaigns would generally thrive on the efficiency, energy and excellence of the copy which when properly executed will influence the consumer. The advertiser intends to spread his/her ideas about the products and offerings among the prospects. Popularization of the products is thus, the basic aim of advertising (Ramaswami & Namakumari, 2004).

The majority of the marketers and advertisers use mass media for their marketing communications. The choice of media is dependent upon the nature of the message and the intended target audience (Etzel et al, 2008). There are different types of medium an advertiser has to use to reach out to a potential buyer ranging from newspaper, poster, radio and television.

The choice of media is dependent upon the nature of the message and the intended target audience (Etzel et al, 2008). Saxena, (2005), noted that Television advertising is the best selling and economical media ever invented. It has a potential advertising impact unmatched by any other media (Saxena, 2005). The advantage of television over the other mediums is that it is perceived as a combination of audio and video features; it provides products with instant validity and prominence and offers the greatest possibility for creative advertising (Kavitha, 2006). Over a longer period of time, the TV set has become a permanent fixture in all upper and middle class households, and it is not uncommon even in the poorer society of urban areas and rural households (Shah & D’Souza, 2008). Reactions to TV advertisements seem to be stronger than the reaction to print advertisements (Corlis, 1999). The advertisers find it more effective to use television rather than print media to reach consumers, partly due to low literacy rate (Ciochetto, 2004). TV advertising not only change emotions but give substantial message exerting a far reaching influence on the daily lives of people (Kotwal et al, 2008).

Advertisers through television can reach a whole spectrum of consumers. The children are exposed to an overwhelming amount of advertising (Cruz, 2004). Almost every household in Nigerian and particularly in Benin city,  are a regular viewer of television. They spend most of their free time in front of television, watching programmes and channels of their choice. The majority of household believe television advertisements to be informative and most children respond to them favourably (Cruz, 2004). They also exert a substantial influence on their parents’ consumer decision making and spending (Hawkins et al, 2001). The greater TV exposure is associated with more requests for the advertised products (Robertson & Rossiter, 1977). Parents in dual income families have more discretionary income and are busier and feeling guiltier and therefore are softer when it comes to teenager’s requests (Sellers, 1989). Marketers, who take advantage of young people’s power to influence family purchase, choose commercials or television programmes that reach children or teenage youth together with their parents (Kraak & Pelletier, 1998). The teenagers have become a strong influencing group and even have the ability to influence the purchase decisions in the family from cakes to cars

(Shashidhar & Adivi, 2006).

Television advertisements have heralded an unprecedented increase in economic activities. For some, television advertisements are always one of the best things to look out for on television because of their highly captivating, dramatic, entertaining and humorous nature. For others, this form of advertisement is nothing but an interruption of a nice quiet evening at home, especially when the viewer is seriously engrossed in a highly informative news programme. However, beyond these two extremes, the advertiser must gain access to the consumer’s mind in order to win his/her purchasing loyalty. This is why the advertiser capitalizes on the glamour and potency of television to reach out to a wide spectrum of consumers in order to market his wares. Ideally, television commercials are based on the same principle as the old-time medicine show where a medicine dealer uses banjo player and magician to attract customer‟s attention to his product and market his wares.

Customers are valuable assets for the enterprise, but they can be costly to acquire and retain. The customers’ differences in the course of their relationship with the enterprise are reflected in their contributions to the enterprise value throughout their tenure. To the extent that different acquisition strategies bring different “qualities” of customers, the acquisition effort has an important influence on the long-term profitability of the enterprise. Indeed, both practitioners and scholars have emphasized that enterprises should spend not to acquire just any customer but rather the “right” kind of customer (Blattberg & Deighton 1996; Blattberg, Getz, & Thomas 2001; Hansotia & Wang 1997; Reichheld 1993), because advertising plays a very important role in this field.

Advertisers pay a particular attention to the customer in order to attract and retain him/her. According Kotler and others (2003), Jokubauskas (2003), both the businesses and individual sellers should ask themselves what should the advertising of their products and services should be and what impact on the customer should it make. Therefore, these aspects should be anticipated and evaluated and the following questions answered: what should the ad be; what should the emphasis be put on; what visual design should be chosen; what psychological impact is it going to have on the customer, what medium or channel of communication should be employed?

Consumers’ behaviour is affected by both internal (individual) and external (environmental) factors or influences. The internal influences include the consumer motivation and involvement, attitudes, personality and self-concept, learning and memory, information processing on the other hand, external factors includes cultural influences, sub-cultural influences, social class influences, social group influences, family influences, personal influences, (khan, 2006). The way these influencing factors integrated within the consumer determines how that consumer will behave towards the product(s) which focal point is on the effect of peak milk television advertisement.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

One major fact is that consumers are being bombarded with advertisement messages day-in-day -out from all imaginable media. The average consumer is exposed to a very large number of advertisements every day, particularly the urban and semi-urban population. Advertising has been perceived as a veritable medium of stimulating, motivation and influencing the purchase and other behavioral response of their prospective customers. The potency of advertising in product promotion cannot be over emphasized.

This influence may be either positive or negative. The kind of influence depends on the kind and quality of advertisement. Since television commercials have the potential to influence human behavior either to make them buy a product or admire it. It becomes relevant to establish the effect of such influence with reference to peak milk television advertisement in Edo state.

Furthermore, there is no gainsaying that television advertising has strong persuasive stimuli in helping to determine what we actually think about; it controls our values, attitudes and belief system, especially when weighed on constant exposure, prominence and cumulative media specific effect (Gambo, 2003: 690). If this is the case, what therefore is the effect of peak milk television advertisement on consumer’s buying behaviour in Edo State?

1.3       Objectives of the Study

1. To find out the impacts of television advertisement on the sales and promotion of peak milk product
2. To determine the extent to which television advertisement influences consumer to buying of peak milk product

1. To find out the roles of television advertising in peak milk product and sales promotion
2. To examine the level of influence of peak milk television advertisement on consumer buying behaviours.

1.4       Research Question

1. What are the impacts of television advertisement on the sales and promotion of peak milk product?
2. What is the extent to which television advertisement influences consumer to buying of peak milk product?

1. What is the roles of television advertising in peak milk product and sales promotion?
2. What level of influence does peak milk television advertisement have on consumer buying behaviours?

1.5       Significance of the Study

The result of the study would be of immense benefit to advertisers of peak milk as it would provide a guide on planning, production and placement of television advertisements for the product.

Essentially, this study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature on the attitude of consumers towards television advertisement. The study would also be of great use to mass communication and marketing students who intend to take up similar studies.

It is also envisaged that findings from this study would assist the management of Peak Milk Nigeria Plc.to effectively promote their products in the highly competitive environment of the brewery industry in Nigeria.

1.6       The Scope of the Study

The scope of this study is limited to consumers of peak milk in Benin City Edo State. The scope covered Benin environs as it is the largest city with the largest number of local government area in Edo State. Moreover, it is the commercial nerve centre of the state with active commercial activities on a daily basis. Therefore consumers here will constitute the scope of this study.

1.7       Definition of Terms

Frequently employed terms in this study are defined within the context of usage to avoid any misinterpretation.

ADVERTISING; Act of making something deliberately known to be people through any of the channel mass of communication such as television and persuading them for positive action towards that thing.

BUYING DECISION: The ability of the consumer to conclude on the purchase of a particular product.

BUYING HABIT: The decision process and actions of people involved in buying and usage of products.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Activities, actions and influence of people who purchase and use goods and services to satisfy their personal or household needs or wants.

.EXTERNAL INFLUENCE: This refers to the environmental influence on the consumer. Examples include family’s social structure and culture.

INFLUENCE: Power to effect somebody’s or people’s character, belief or action through example or powerful presentation.

INTERNAL INFULENCE: This connotes personal needs and motive of the consumers, his perception, the habit he had developed that influence his behaviour

IMPACT: The powerful, immediate or dramatic effect that something or somebody has over another thing or person.

TELEVISION: A piece of electrical equipment with a screen on which you can watch programmes with moving pictures and sounds.

TELEVISION ADVERTISING:Marketing communication about product or services channeled to the public though the television usually by an identified sponsor.

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