ABSTRACT
The title of the study is TELEVISION ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: A STUDY OF NOKIA ADVERTS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA. Despite the fact that marketers spend great amount of money to expose consumers to television commercials of mobile phones, consumers so often turn away or tune away from commercials, and viewers tend to leave for something else, which is also common here in Nigeria. Many organisations place there adverts on wrong advertising pods, positioning, timing and length, which brings about low advertising returns on sales. This study intends to evaluate the impact of pod positioning, timing and length, advert repetition and correct branding on advert likeability, customers attitude and other associated behavioural change that might occur due to the effect of television advertisement especially on mobile phone adverts.
Cross sectional survey design was adopted, and this study will be situated in Lagos State, Nigeria. Which have a population of 17,552,409 Lagos state is sub- divided into three senatorial zones, which are Central, West and East. Lagos state comprises of twenty Local governments Area each senatorial zones will be fully represented by a local government. The hypothesized relationship between television advertising and consumer behaviour was tested with a simple size of 400 using the simple random sampling techniques. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire to measure each variable in the study. To ensure reliability of research instrument, pilot study was conducted and results of chronbach coefficients was 0.86 which higher than 0.7, the questionnaire was validated by research supervisor, seminal lecturer and experts in the field of study. Regression analysis was used to analyse the data collected with the aid of statistical package. SPSS.
Findings H1, stipulates that the result of Advertising pod positioning, timing and length has a significant effect on Advert Recall df= (398, 1), R = 0.188, F= 14.557, P = 0.000<0.05. H2, also showed that Repeat Advert has a significant effect on Advert Likeability df= (398, 1), R = 0.474, F= 115.475; P = 0.02<0.05. H3, also implies that correct branding has a significant effect on brand identification df= (398, 1), R = 0.700, F= 383, P = 0.01<0.05. H4 result implies that Product sales promotion has a significant effect on band attitude df= (398, 1), r = 0.501, F= 133.36; P = 0.04<0.05.
The conclusion reached was that Advertising pod positioning, timing, length of Nokia adverts on television has an effect on Nokia users. Also Repeat advert increases the likeability of both the product and the advert. Viewers of the advert can correctly identify and developed a brand attitude towards the Nokia brand only when the Product sales promotion is correctly carried out and must be aimed at catching the interest of the target consumers. Despite, the high level of likeability, brand recall and brand identification only stipulates that about 55% of the viewers will recommend Nokia to others after viewing the advert.
Keywords: Television Advertising, Pod positioning, Timing, Length, Advert Recall, Brand identification.
Word Count: 480
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Advertising is a critical component of the marketing mix for any brand of products and services (Tapan, Tapas and Kamalesh, 2013). Advertisement helps to develop business brand and shape positive consumer perception and plays a vital role not only in the agencies that practice it but to the manufacturers, media and customers as well. For instance it constitutes a source of income for media houses and two third of the newspapers revenue comes from adverts (Ugbor, 2013). Apart from contributing to the survival of radio, television, magazines and other channels of mass communication, advertisement adds beauty, elegance and glamour to the entertainment nature of the media (Athnia, 2006).
Doghuje (1985) opined that “advertising is a marketing tool whose sole aim is to build preferences for advertised brands or services”. According to Jetkins (2000) advertising is a practical affair which differs with marketing; marketing drives products and services to the customers while advertising drives customers to the product or services. It also stimulates demands, strengthens other promotion mix elements, develops brand preference, cut costs, and serves as competitive weapons for marketers (Kazmi, and Batra, 2004). Of all the various means of advertisement, Television advertising remains the most dominant form and the the most effective mass market advertising to which typical consumers are exposed or as a major channel for creating awareness of company’s products and service (Hyun and Richard, 2013). This kind of Advertising is best at creating initial awareness of a product or services building an image and reinforcing existing impressions consumers have of a brand.
In America, the average amount of commercial adverts on television equates to a minimum of 28 commercials adverts per hour. Television advert has become a huge business for a long time. For instance, in 1989 Philip Morris spent 2 billion dollars on advertising expenditures (Endicott, 1989). The immensity of this annual commitment to advertising expenditures reflects the importance which industry places upon the role of advertising in the marketing process.
Another aspect of television advertising is in the area of correct branding. According to Jenni (2012), low correct-branding levels in television advertising are scarily common. Most studies into correct branding in television advertising reveal an average success rate of around 50 percent. That means only one in two viewers who remember the exposure to an advertisement could correctly identify the advertised brand.
A further look at television advertisement revealed that different television shows attract different consumers and have unique competition (Srinivasan and Robert, 2013), so they have distinctive tune-away tendencies beyond genre effects (Schweidel and Kent, 2010). Marketers may receive an estimate of the number of viewers who see the average advertisement in a program, but granular ratings data on each advertising unit typically are not yet available (Atkinson, 2008).
A grouping of commercials and non-program material in which (usually) are more than one advertiser’s commercials air is known as advertising pods. Also referred to as a “commercial interruption” or “commercial break, advertising pods often are placed near the beginning and end of programming. And, as one study has noted, more avoidance of commercials occurs for advertisements shown near the top and bottom of broadcast hours (Siddarth and Chattopahdyay, 1998). This finding suggests that consumers are more active near the beginning and end of programs, when their chosen show may be ending or over and new shows begins.
The increasingly accepted view in the advertising industry is that brands are no longer expected to be reassuring to consumers; rather they must inspire consumers to take risks (Brown, Kozinets and Sherry, 2003). In advertising, brand recall always matters. It is the brand recall at the point of purchase that guides the success or failure of a brand. Tapan, Tapas and Kamalesh, (2013) opined that emotional responses to advertising and advertising evaluations are deliberated by negative effects and stimulated by positive effects. This also establishes the fact that liking/preference towards an advertisement by a consumer may lead to development of positive attitude towards a brand leading to higher purchase intention of consumers (Tapan, Tapas and Kamalesh, 2013).
Other element in advertisement is the use of figurative language (describe something by comparing it with something else). It has been shown that messages using figurative language elicit more positive attitudes toward the advert and the product, compared with advertising that does not employ figurative language (Phillips and McQuarrie 2009), and that this positive effect occurs across product categories and consumption contexts (Chang and Yen 2013). There are several reasons for this positive effect, one of which has being traced to the amusing, creative and artful nature of adverts. Another reason is that advertisers’ aim to persuade consumers (Coleman, 1990). Figurative language in advertising is effective because of the pleasure consumers experience from appreciating the artfulness of the advert (Phillips and McQuarrie 2009; Sopory and Dillard 2002), whereas other consumers find that certain figures of speech in advertising evoke deeper processing in them than others (Mothersbaugh, Huhmann and Franke, 2012).
According to Orlando (2012) when one watches an advert, emotional associations develop that triggers a perceptual and intuitive system that is fast to react, automatic, associative, and effortless and learns through repeated experiences over time (system 1 theory) emotions. Some of the emotions triggered are fear, love and humour and eroticism (Kahneman, 2011). Orlando (2010) showed that different type of emotions like humour, fear and love influences consumer’s judgment on various platforms which leads to purchase decision making at the point of purchase.
While fear and love in advertising evoked feelings and form the difference in the formation of consumers attitude towards advertisement, humour seems to be more effective. About half of all adverts around the globe are considered either “funny” or “light-hearted.” (Kahneman, 2011). It is not surprising that advertisers invoke humour, as it can make a big contribution to adverts “memorability” many of the most memorable adverts campaigns around tend to be funny. Advertisers use this strategy to attract customers to their product. Audiences like to be entertained, but not pitched. People will pay more attention to a humorous commercial than a factual or serious one, opening themselves up to be influenced. The key to funny advertising is assuring the humour is appropriate to both product and customer. The balance between funny and obnoxious can often be delicate; and a marketer must be certain to the fact that the positive effects outweigh the negative before such humorous adverts can be introduced (mark levitt, 2015).
One common method in improving advertising effectiveness is through repeat advertisements during a broadcast (Moorthy and Hawkins, 2005). Another approach is to place commercials within positions that are more likely to catch viewers’ attention (Brunel and Nelson, 2003). In many cases, these two strategies have often been combined (Yongick, Hai, Xinshu, 2012). Advertising frequency on television has a positive relationship between brand awareness and repetition in some studies (Cleveland and Maravelakis, 2006) while in other studies repeat advertising or advertising frequency had a negative impact on awareness (Broussard, 2000). In most cases advert is much more comparatively stronger and easy to remember than those in later stages (Riebe and Dawes, 2006).
In Nigeria much of the early history of advertising centres on the activities of the offshoots of multinational firms such as Unilever and its advertising agency, LINATS (Ozoh, 2001). Recently a more vigorous industry has emerged in all sector of the nation’s economy; however as expected the telecommunication industry spends the highest in television advertisement which was recorded as 16billion naira on television advert expenditure alone in Nigeria.(staff writers: 2011) and looking at the recent political campaign in Nigeria 2015, it was estimated that 6.7 billion naira was spent on political party campaigns on television which was tagged as the most expensive in the history of political campaigns in Nigeria, (Asokoinsight, African market intelligence). It was also gathered that companies pays 2.5million naira on television adverts space of 30seconds within an adverts pod. In the United States of America it was revealed that mobile advertising rose from $770 million in 2010 to $4.1 billion in 2012, and it is forecasted to reach $32.2 billion by 2017 (E-marketer, 2013). All efforts and expenditures on advert only have one aim in all countries and industries and that is to persuade (Gibson, 1983).
According to Robert Heath (2009) advertisement on television can have powerful persuasive effects without recall (Heath, 2009), and also without liking (Bergkvist and Rossiter, 2008). However, while advertising is relatively good at improving ad viewers’ objective knowledge (e.g., facts about a product), it is often less effective in enhancing subjective knowledge about a product or service (self-confidence about product information) (Rao and Monroe 1988).
From an equity perspective, it is important for brands to have a large number of associations because as the number increases, the memory structure for that brand becomes richer which, in turn, offers multiple pathways to access the brand from memory (Marı´a, 2012).
The best forms of television advert associations have emotional elements in them and they impact on behaviors. These associations have impact on thoughts, emotions, programs, decisions, purchases and feelings that accompany customers before, during and after purchase (Frankatal, 2001). In a nutshell this association also evoked by a brand is used to characterize brand image (Keller 1993 and Krishnan 1996). It is in line with the above background that this study intends to investigate television advertising and consumer behavior of advertised mobile phones in Nigeria.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Many adverts of organizations are placed on wrong advertising pods position and timing which have failed to catch the attention of the product target audience or viewers which brings about low advertising return. Despite the fact that Marketers spend great amounts of money to expose consumers to television commercials (Srinivasan and Robert, 2013), consumers, however, so often tune away during commercials (Siddarth and Teixeira, Wedel, and Pieters, 2010). A study by Nielsen and the CTAB (2000) found that advertising recall was much higher for the initial advertisements and slightly higher for the trailing advertisements in pods composed of only five advertising units. Thus it is necessary for this study to actually verify the effects of pod position, pod length, and pod timing which may influence advertising exposure levels on mobile advertisement platforms.
One of the challenges faced by advertisers is the issue of brand attitude. Raghunathan and Corfman (2006) revealed that advertising information and socially engaging advertisements hold their power over viewers during the viewing event. Thus viewers who are exposed to the advert may develop brand attitude. Brand attitude is a more appropriate measure than purchase intention for both low and high involvement products (Rossiter and Percy, 1997) and can be an early indicator of later behavioural change (Morris, Woo, Geason and Kim, 2002) but the question still remains, what motivates viewers at home to watch adverts, respond to it and engage in it.
One common method marketers use to improve advertising effectiveness is to repeat advertisements during a broadcast (Moorthy and Hawkins, 2005). Why some studies indicated that repeated exposures to a commercial message would increase viewer’s familiarity with the advertised brand and, thereby, generates a higher level of brand recognition (Anand and Sternthal, 1990, Beant Singh, 1995; Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999). But other author’s state that repetitions of stimuli increased beyond an optimal frequency would lead to boredom and, eventually, evoke negative feelings toward the advertisement (Broussard, 2000). However it is known for sure what the outcome would be in a mobile advert.
According to Yongick, Hai, and Xinhua (2012), repeatedly exposing viewers to the same brand in the context of mobile phones would have a positive impact on brand recognition. In other words advertising effectiveness an element of advertising likeability will be created by repeated advertisement. Also Advertising likeability (“ad liking”) positively has been shown to be associated with other effectiveness measures, such as attention, recall, purchase intention, attitude toward brand, and brand loyalty (Newstead and Romaniuk, 2010). The basic assumption has been that likeable advertisements have a greater chance of being noticed and remembered (Smit Barney, 2006).
According to Jenni, (2012) it has been observed that during the time for adverts, home viewers engage them self with something else, like they see it as a time to flip through there novel, leave the sitting room, or quickly engaging themselves with something they ought to have done and quickly return back when the desired program or show is back on television. in addition the contexts through which viewers respond to television advertisements and their subsequent engagement with them for reading and decoding messages have been identified as a problem. Also one of two viewers who remember the exposure to an advertisement could correctly identify the advertised brand (Jenni, 2012). Low correct-branding level in television advertisement is common and this affects the need for the viewers to identify the brand being advertised (Jenni, 2012).
This study intends to evaluate the impact of pod length, advert repetition, and correct branding have on likeability; customer’s attitude and other associated behavioural change.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The general objective of this study is to assess the impact of Television advertising on consumer behavior of mobile phones users in Lagos State. The specific objectives are to:
- examine the effect of advertising pod positioning, timing and length on advertising recall;
- evaluate the extent to which repeat advert of mobile product impact on advert likeability in the target market;
- to determine the degree to which correct branding will influence consumers brand identity and
- access the role of product sales promotion in ensuring brand attitude among mobile advert viewers.
1.4 Research Questions:
- How do television advertising pods, positioning, timing and length affect advertising recall?
- In what way does repeat advert of mobile product in the target market impact on advert likeability?
- How will correct product branding of television advertising influences consumers in brand identity?
- What role will product sales promotion play in ensuring brand attitude among mobile advert viewers?
1.5 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance
Ho1: Advertising pod positioning, timing and length has no significant effect on advertising recall;
Ho2: Repeat advert of mobile product has no significant impact with advert likeability;
Ho3: Correct product branding will not significantly influence consumers brand identity;
Ho4: Product sales promotion does not have any significant role in ensuring brand attitude
1.6 Operationalization of Variables
Y = f(X)
Y = Dependent Variable
X = Independent Variables
Where:
Y = Consumers Behavior
X = T.V Advertising
Y = (y1, y2, y3, y4)
Where:
y1 = Advertising recall
y2 = Advert likeability
y3 = Brand identification
y4 = Brand attitude
X = (x1, x2, x3, x4)
x1= Pod position, timing and length
x2= Repeat advertising
x3= Correct product branding
x4= Product sales Promotion
The functional relationship is there for stated as :
- y1= f(x1) ——————————————————— Hypothesis 1
- y2= f(x2) ———————————————————- Hypothesis 2
- y3= f(x3)———————————————————– Hypothesis 3
- y4= f(x4) ———————————————————- Hypothesis 4
And regressionally: (y1, y2, y3, y4,) = f(x1, x2, x3, x4,)
y1 = α0 + β1x1 + β2x2 + β3x3 + β4x4 + e …………………..(i)
y2 = α0 + β1x1 + β2×2 + β3x3 + β4x4 + e…………………….. (ii)
y3 = α0 + β1x1 + β2×2 + β3x3 + β4x4 + e ……………………..(iii)
y4 = α0 + β1x1 + β2×2 + β3x3 + β4x4 + e……………………… (iv)
1.7 Significance of the Study
This study is significant to the mobile phone industry in that if underlining conventions that bring about successful advertising is understood and adhered, there could be a huge impact of mobile advert effect on media audience or consumers. The study could also point out to mobile sponsor’s effective channel of reducing advert cost and increasing the number of advert viewers.
The higher the number of viewers that see an advert and that formed a positive attitude towards the advert message the greater the number that could patronise the brand or developed loyalty for the brand. Thus this study could enable advert sponsors/management to reach a larger number of people because of the discovery of factors that affects consumer’s behaviour positively towards television advertisement of mobile phone products. Again a study on TV advert and consumer’s choice of mobile product is particularly pertinent in light of the huge competition in the mobile market.
The study is important to the government, election campaign, and citizenship orientation messages. If the relevant ministries in charge of branding the perception of the nation with television advert are equipped with the required information that brings about effective advertisement this could go a long way towards saving the huge sums of money or budget spent on citizen orientation.
The general public could benefit from this study because they would better understand the benefits of effective advertising. This study will also provide background information for researchers on the topic under investigation. It will also enhance the knowledge of the production firms towards television advertising and consumer behaviour. This study is useful to the general public in that it informs them on how television advertisement influences them consciously and subconsciously.
1.8 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on Television Advertising and consumer behaviour: A study of Nokia Adverts in Lagos state. The study looked into consumer responses owning to the effects of pod positions, length, Timing, correct product branding, brand distinctiveness, recall and advert frequency of Nokia adverts. Primary data will be used for this study; questionnaires will be distributed to 520 residents in Ikeja, Surulere and Ibeju-Lekki in Lagos. Random sampling technique will be used to distribute the questionnaire with the aid of research assistants. Lagos state was selected because it is a geographical home to many and most of the television stations in Nigeria are situated in Lagos state. In addition Lagos state is the main target market for advertisers.
- Operational Definition of Terms
Advertising: Advertising is a non-personal form of promotion that is delivered through selected media outlets that, under most circumstances, require the marketer to pay for message placement.
Brand: A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol or design or a combination of them intended (Keller, 2003) to identify mobile product.
Correct Branding: The ability of the advertiser or mobile phones to communicate the brand and its functions correctly
Differential effect: is defined as the customer’s response to the marketing of a brand in comparison with the response to the marketing of an unknown or fictitiously named product or service.
Effective advertisement: The ability of a Nokia advert to generate the most effective mental images in the mind of “Lagosians” that leads to positive behavioural changes towards Nokia.
Pod Positioning: The period when an advert is placed: before, between, or after a favourite popular television programme, this could be advantageous in short or long pod.
Advert Likeability: Is a situation that occurs among viewers over an advert, in which viewers develop a cognitive desire or being influence by a commercial and liking such a commercial on T.V. which can be achieve in repetition of an advert over time which leads to purchase.
Pod Timing: Is the point in time within the day when the commercials of a brand are placed on television to ensure that the target market or potential consumers of such brands are exposed to the commercials and should attract and catch their attentions.
Pod Length: the duration of commercials placed on television to ensure positive impacts are achieve and creates awareness as expected.
Sales promotion: a form of marketing communication employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability awareness for consumers.
Repeat Advert: the number of times that the potential consumers of a brand are exposed to an advertising message on television.
Advertising Recall: The level of remembrance of commercials, seen, heard or experience of a brand which has to do with products and services.
Brand Identification: the brand name, communication style, logo and other visual elements has perceived by consumers.
Brand Attitude: what people think about a product or services whether the product meet the consumers need, and just how much the product is wanted in the market by consumers. Good knowledge of brand attitude is very helpful in planning an advertising campaign.