CHAPTER ONE

1.0            INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF STUDY

We live in an era where technology has come to play a very important role in our society. The advent of the Internet has taken over people’s lives, enabled by the enormous growth of technologies that can be accessed very easily: whoever is interested in connecting to the web can do it whenever, everywhere and almost for free thanks to the extremely modern technologies that are nowadays accessible to most people (Boyd & Ellison, 2008).

The emergence of globalization has created more dimensions for researchers to explore the role of advertising in products and services performance including consumers’ attitude (Kanso & Nelson, 2007). According to Tai (2007), the advancement of technology enables competitors’ easy access to marketing information. Therefore, advertising plays an important role in such situation by developing a strong brand name of the corporation or products. Advertising is a non-personal communication in the structure of information, usually paid for and generally persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by acknowledged sponsors through an assortment of media (Bovee & Arens, 1992). In general, advertising is used to inform, persuade, and remind consumers. Advertising is believed to enhance buyers’ responses to products or services offered by a firm, thus enabling possibilities of increased profitability. However, advertising has been accused of an array of sins ranging from an economic waste to purveying of harmful products, from sexism to deceit and manipulation, from triviality to intellectual and moral pollution (Mittal,1994). However, descriptions of advertising vary. Previously, Kotler (1988) noted that advertising helps

to increase the potential buyers’ reactions towards a organization and its offering, accentuating that it seeks to do this by supplying information, channeling desire, and providing reasons for preferring a particular organization’s offer. Some might consider this as a strategy to enhance brand loyalty among customers and to attract customers away from competitors (Agrawal, 1996). Morden (1991) stated that advertising is used to create an essential awareness of the product or service in the mentality of the potential customer and to build up knowledge about it. For instance, prior research indicates that in China, 70 per cent of Chinese recognized Coca-Cola brand due to the massive advertisement they encountered (Yan, 2004). Recently, Ha, John, Janda and Muthaly (2011) revealed that spending on advertising is an imperative for firms in order to retain customers. Hence, the purpose of advertising is to create awareness of the advertised product and provide information that will assist the consumer to make informed-purchase decision.

The importance of advertising as a promotional strategy, therefore, depends on its capability to influence consumers to not only purchase but to continue to repurchase and eventually develop-brand loyalty.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The growth of an organization is dependent on the attitude of the consumers towards their products. If there is a negative attitude of consumers towards a product there will be a very low sale of that product but when there is a good attitude of consumers towards a product the level of sales of that product would be very high. However the means or method of advertising products affects the attitude of consumers towards the product. Some consumers who do not like social media tends to feel the same way towards products advertised via the social media. It is however important to study the target market and know the method of advertisement that would promote a good attitude from consumers’ towards the products.

1.3     OBJECTIVE IF THE STUDY

The general objective of this study is to examine the attitude of consumers towards advertisement of products. The specific objectives are:

1.     To ascertain if Consumer manipulation will have a negative influence on consumers’ attitude towards advertising.

2.     To find out if Product information will have a positive influence on consumers’ attitude towards advertising.

3.     To examine if good economic conditions will have a positive influence on attitude towards advertising.

To determine if Social integration will have a positive influence on attitude towards advertising

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTION

The relevant research questions related to this study are:

1.     Will Consumer manipulation have a negative influence on consumers’ attitude towards advertising?

2.     Will Product information have a positive influence on consumers’ attitude towards advertising?

3.     Will good economic conditions have a positive influence on attitude towards advertising?

4.     Will Social integration have a positive influence on attitude towards advertising?

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

This study is significant because it elucidates the factors influencing the attitude of consumers towards advertisement of products. The findings from this research help company managers to see the necessity of assessing the target market before deciding on the method of advertisement to use when trying to promote a product. The attitude of consumers towards advertisement of products would in turn influence consumers’ attitude towards the products. So this study focuses on examining the attitude of consumers towards advertisement of products.

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study is restricted to the attitude of consumers towards advertisement of products.

1.7     LIMITATION OF STUDY

The limitations encountered during this study are lack of adequate resources on the subject of study; most of the respondents are not ready to be interviewed and also inadequate time

1.8     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Attitude: is the way you feel about something or someone, or a particular feeling or opinion

A consumer:  is someone who can make the decision whether or not to purchase an item at the store, and someone who can be influenced by marketing and advertisements.

Advertising: is the activity or profession of producing advertisements for commercial products or services.