CHAPTER ONE

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF STUDY

In this rapidly changing world marketers want to communicate their message to the people that can influence buying behavior of people. They adopt different tools to deliver their ideas to the people and advertise their product to the target customers. Now a day’s people are bombarded with lots of information through multiple media like newspapers, magazines, billboard, television and internet (Latif & Abideen, 2011).

But people are engaging in many activities at a time, they did not have time to update themselves time by time. And it is becoming difficult for advertisers to trap them so in these circumstances advertisers select billboards as an advertisement tool that effectively convey message to the target people (Balkafl, Akbulut and Kartopu, 2005) even when they are not there. Authors and researchers recognized that billboards have unique characteristics (e.g., Kelley and Jugenheimer 2004; Sissors and

Baron 2002; Taylor 2007; Vanden Bergh and Katz 2009; Woodside 2000). Through billboard advertisement, advertisers can attract the customers towards their product at particular location. Now a day’s companies are using so many ways to attract customers toward their product. For this purpose they are using advertising, publicity, personal selling etc. among all marketing tools that advertisers choose to attract customers towards their products or the services offered, most important is advertising because its impact is relatively long lasting relative to other marketing tools (Katke, 2007).Due to clutter of channels customer’s are giving less response towards ads.

The main objective of advertisement is to find out the impact of advertising on customer buying behavior (Abideen and Saleem, 2011). Trend of billboard advertisement is very common and is increasing day by day. So, main focus in the study is to find out the impact of billboard advertisement on customer buying behavior. Main purpose to analyze the impact of buying behavior of the customers is that why people act in certain ways under given circumstances (Abideen and Saleem, 2011).

Advertising has been such a persuasive and intrusive socio-economic force in Nigeria, as in other countries, that neither manufacturer nor consumers can ignore it (Bardi 2010; Agwu 2012). As a communication medium, advertising invades our streets, offices, villages and homes, pushing in messages about various products and services, ideas, persons (dead or alive) and institutions through various media outlet (Ozoh 2008). It does this intensively and persistently that it is only our natural abilities to selectively perceive and recall information that saves us from the thralldom of what communication experts have described as “information overload” (Nwosu, 2000).

Terence (2007), defined advertising as a paid mediated form of communication from an identifiable source, designed to persuade the receiver to take some action, now or in the future. (Agwu 2013; Ikpefan, et al., 2014). The basic purpose of advertising is to communicate the news to the user or the customer that there is something new in the market. But when we go into the depth; advertising serves the source to persuade or attract customer about the product to do a certain action which is usually to purchase a product (Kenneth and Donald 2010).

Advertising serves a good purpose for business nowadays (Onunkwo 2007) because of numbers of goods and services produced every day. Advertising helps in telling the consumer about any new product or service or any new promotion on the existing product and service. Advertising helps to describe the features and characteristics of product or service in the visual form so that the customer can understand it easily. So advertising has become important for business nowadays (Bardi 2010). It is in the light of the above discussion that this study intends to critically examine the impact of billboards advertisements on consumer purchase of detergents.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Billboards have remained an important tool to share the information with the target market. It plays an important role in business. It is a form of communication intended to convince the audience to purchase or take action on particular products, services or information. The problem with most firms is that they might end up spending a lot of money that will not yield anything to the company thereby putting the organization at risk. Advertisement on billboard does not really convince a buyer to patronize the goods that is being advertised. Finally, the several researches has been carried out on the impacts of advertising but not even a single research has been carried out on the impact of billboard advertisements on consumer purchase of detergents.

1.3   AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

        The main aim of the study is to examine the impact of billboards advertisement on consumer purchase of detergents. Other specific objectives of the study include;

1. to determine the effect of billboard advertisements on consumer purchase of detergents.
2. to determine the factors affecting billboard advertisement and its effect on consumer purchase of detergents.
3. to determine the influence of billboard advertisement on consumer purchase of detergent.
4. to proffer possible solutions to the problems.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS               

1. What is the effect of billboard advertisements on consumer purchase of detergents?
2. What are the factors affecting billboard advertisement and its effect on consumer purchase of detergents?
3. What is the influence of billboard advertisement on consumer purchase of detergent?
4. What are the possible solutions to the problems?

1.5   STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H0:   Billboard advertisement has no significant effect on consumer purchase of detergent.

H1:      Billboard advertisement has a significant effect on consumer purchase of detergent.

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

        The study on the impact of billboard advertisement on consumer purchase of detergent will be of immense benefit to the entire detergent producing companies in the sense that they are showing to the public their new product which might end up being the choice of the consumers. The study will also enable the consumers to have the knowledge about new products in the market and the chances of making choice since people like things differently. Finally, the study will contribute to the body of existing literature and knowledge to this field of study and basis for further research.

1.7   SCOPE OF STUDY

        The study on the impact of billboard advertisements is limited to consumer purchase of detergents.

1.8   LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9   DEFINITION OF TERMS

Impact    A marked effect or influence.

Billboard Is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads.

Advertisement                A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy.

Consumer Purchase       Consumer purchases refer to items used in daily living (e.g., clothing, food, electronics, appliances). They are the purchases that most intimately frame your life: you live with these items and use them every day.