Influence Of Advertisement On The Choice Of Detergents Among Students

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Advertisement is one of the key elements for the development, expansion, and growth of industrial sector and ultimately for the economic development. The media and advertising campaigns are unavoidable by consumers in the 21st century. Researchers have studied and will continue to study the effects of advertising and its influence on attitudinal change, emotions, modification of lifestyle choices and its significant role in the consumption of goods and services (Horne, 2006) cited in Akinrosoye (2011).

Advertising, over the years has evolved into a powerful marketing tools in modern economics; advertising plays an important role in the growth of a business in its line of expertise. Advertising is a persuasive non-personal communication about products, services, or ideas usually paid for by identified sponsors through the various mass media. Today, we are exposed to advertisement everywhere, whether in the bus, walking round the street, on the high ways, while travelling, in the newspapers and on radio and television, SMS advert receive on our mobile phones, email advert/marketing we get in our inbox and particularly when surfing the internet.  

Advertising is one of the ingredients in sustaining business whether the company is dealing with products or services. The entire business of a commercial organization or company starts and ends with advertising. That is to say, the rise and fall of the profit of a company depends solely on the expenditure incurred by the advertiser.

It should be noted that when planning advertising campaign, one of the things to be considered from the outset is the type of media to be used, because different media performs present different purposes and offer different kind of results. Children advertisement is better channeled through television while adult advert can pass messages from radio, TV, billboard and print media. Illiterates cannot grab messages from newspaper, social media and other literate media.       

Advertising is a form of marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or continue some actions, usually with respect to a commercial offering, or political or ideological support. In Latin, “ad vertere” means to “to turn toward”. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful.

It should be noted that adverts are placed where advertisers believe they will reach the largest, most relevant audience. Commercial business use advertising to drive the consumption of their product, while non-profit organization may place adverts to raise awareness or encourage a change in behaviour or perception. 

It should be noted that, consumers don’t just buy advertised goods and service because they have enough money but rather they motivated by certain motive. Smriti (2007) writes that buying motive is the urge or motive to satisfy a desire or need that makes people buy goods or services. Motive equally seen as thoughts, feelings, emotions and instincts, which arouse in the buyers a desire to buy. A buyer does not buy because s/he has been persuaded by the salesman, but s/he buys for the aroused desire in him or her. In another word, a motive is simply a reason for carrying out a particular behaviour and not an automatic response to a stimulus.

According to Smriti (2007), motives that drive advertisement include pride or prestige, emulation or imitation, affection, comfort or desire for comfort, sex appeal or sexual attractions, ambition, desire for distinctiveness or individuality, desire for recreation or pleasure, hunger and thirst, habit etc. On the other hand, Wikipedia (nd) sees a detergent as a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties in dilute solutions. These substances are usually alkylbenzene sulfonates, a family of compounds that are similar to soap but are more soluble in hard water, because the polar sulfonate (of detergents) is less likely than the polar carboxylate (of soap) to bind to calcium and other ions found in hard water. Some of the examples of detergents are, Omo, Klean, WAW, Good Mama, Sunlight, Miss Bimbo, Canoe, Tempo, So Clean, Ariel etc

To this end, the research investigated the influence of advertisement on the choice of detergents among students with a particular focus on University of Uyo. 

1.2 Statement of Problem

For business to yield profit and survive in any competitive environment it need the help of advertising and because of this, many entrepreneurs or companies indulge in illegal advertising so as to get what they want in business. By so doing, they introduce fraudulent and unethical practices that mislead the public, customers, or consumers into leaving the better brand to the worse brand and also into buying the wrong products known as imitations. Adeagbo (2011). This practice makes advertising profession loose its good essence, credibility and interest. It also discourages consumers from paying attention to advertising messages.

Many advertised products and services unable to perform its functions as advertised to the consumers. Similarly, audience or consumers were unable to comprehend advertised messages because of the language used, meaning that at times local language should be used rather than English language. 

Many studies have been conducted on advertising generally, some focused on Television, newspapers, billboards and online. Prakash (2017); Olayinka, (2016); Aminu (2013), Akbar & Paul (2014).

But every little of such studies focused specially on detergents. It is against this background that the study investigates the influence of advertisement on the choice of detergents among students with reference to the students in University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom state.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is; to investigate the influence of advertisement on the choice of detergents among students of University of Uyo.

The specific objectives are

i. To what extent do UNIUYO students expose to detergents advertisements? 

ii. What type of media do students often expose to detergents advertising? 

iii. To what extent do advertisements influence UNIUYO students purchasing decision of  detergents? 

iv. What appeals to students in detergents advertising? 

1.4 Research Questions

The study formulated the following research questions.  

i.  To what extent do UNIUYO students expose to detergents advertisements? 

ii.  What type of media do students often expose to detergents advertising? 

iii. To what extent do advertisements influence UNIUYO students purchasing decision of  detergents? 

iv. What appeals to students in detergents advertising? 

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study which examines the influence of advertisement on the choice of detergents among students was narrowed in scope to students of University of Uyo. The choice of THE students of UNIUYO was due to the proximity to the researcher, inadequate time to study all students in Nigeria.

Also, the demographic factors of the respondents will be studied before the administration of research instrument such factors include: age, gender, academic level e.t.c. Also, out of so many related theories, Uses and Gratifications and Perception Theories was considered in this study.

1.6 Significant of the Study

The findings of this study will benefit the following groups and individuals. Some of the beneficial of the study are students, consumers, policy makers, advertisers, advertising agencies and advertising researchers would stand to gain a lot from the facts contained in this work. 

It will assist advertisers and advertising agencies to understand the concept of advertisement, especially, what consumers want, how they want it and the media they often expose to in order to know how to target them.

Another beneficiary of this study is the media practitioner, the media practitioners are major part of the advertising family because advert messages usually pass through them so that media audience will be exposed to such message, as a result the media need to be watchful on the content their majority of the audience wish to be exposed to, media may begin to lost their audience. Therefore, the media stations need to do audience research.

Detergent industries will benefit lots from the study with the view to know what is expected of them in the aspect of advertising strategies and tactics to persuade and lure consumers to make their choice while it will also enable them structure their adverts and brands to make them more appealing in order to improve sales and lead to better performance.

Findings of this research serve as eye opener to many traditional advertising agencies to join other advertising media such as social media, email and other e-media to their practice. This study gives a clear insight into how advertising campaigns can influence consumers buying behaviour which encouraged brand owners to use suitable media of communication to market their products.

Policy formulators will equally benefit from the research by using the information of study findings to make laws that will improve advertising especially some untrue statements in some advertising messages. Government and policy formulators can through some agencies like APCON approve, edit among other monitoring advertisement message i.e government through her agencies would see the need to enforce truthfulness, fairness and non- deceit contents in advert message in order to safe guide the public interest. 

It will assist students of mass communication, advertisement, marketing and other related field to understand the concept of advertisement. The findings of this study will serve as an addition to existing literature on the topic for students who like to carry out similar research 

This research provides benefits for researchers and practitioners. For researchers, this study attempts to provide a greater understanding of the advertising information and knowledge. Future researchers will find the material relevant as it forms bulk literature that exist in the field of mass communication, journalism and media studies, etc that they can lay hands on when carrying out research related or similar to this. 

1.7 Operational Definition of Terms

Influence: It refers to the effect or contribution of advertisement on the choice of detergents among students.

Advertisement: This is a paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of idea, goods or services by an identified sponsor. The message is usually disseminated through one or more of the mass media for the purpose of detergents promotion

Choice of detergents: In this study, choice of detergent simply means to have interest in using a particular detergent often and often.

Students: These are mainly students of University of Uyo particularly those who are in 100 level to 400 level and 500 level as the case may be.