THE EFFECT OF ONLINE ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Conceptual review
2.1.1 Advertising
According to Arens (2005), advertising is a form of communication intended to convince an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, information or services. Moreover, Bulla and Scott (1994) define advertising as a form of communication which is used to help in selling products and services. Typically, it communicates a message including the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer. Advertising does typically attempt to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service.
2.1.2 Purchasing Process
The purchasing process is a set of procedures used to identify products for purchase, verify quality and compliance of products and vendors, carry out
purchasing transactions, and verify that operations associated with purchasing have been executed appropriately. Arens (2005) state that different organizations have buying processes of varying complexity, depending on the industry in which they work and the nature of the products being purchased.
2.1.3 Consumer Buying Behavior
Moskal and Leydens (2000) define consumer buying behaviour as the sum total of a consumer's attitudes, preferences, intentions and decisions regarding the consumer's behaviour in the marketplace when purchasing a product or service. The study of consumer behaviour draws upon social science disciplines of anthropology, psychology, sociology and economics. The purchases of a food commodity such as a sack of flour or sugar products provide example of consumer buying behaviour (Ibid).
2.2 Theoretical Perspectives
This section provides theoretical perspectives related to this study. They are presented in the context of general theoretical context, methods of advertisement and the impact of advertisement with respect to the consumer.
General Theoretical Context
General theoretical views are texts of scholarly materials, which include the current knowledge. Haug’s (1986) critique of Commodity Aesthetics argues that "commodity aesthetics" shape the values, perceptions, and consumer behaviour of individuals in the contemporary capitalist societies so as to integrate them into the lifestyles of consumer capitalism. The concept of commodity aesthetics emerges within "the problem of realization" (i.e. capital accumulation, the realization of surplus value) and the tension between "use-value" and "exchange-value." The concept describes the ways that aesthetics are integrated into the production, distribution and marketing of commodities. More specifically, commodity aesthetics refers to "a beauty developed in the service of the realization of exchange value, whereby commodities are designed to stimulate in the onlooker the desire to possess and the impulse to buy" (Haug, 1986:54). In other words, commodity aesthetics uses aesthetics to sell products and consumer capital in the form of advertising, packaging, marketing, and display. Much like Boorstin, Debord and Baudrillard, Haug (Ibid) emphasizes the importance of image and appearance in contemporary society, and reveals how they are connected to the sales effort and to the capitalist political economy.
In the early 20th century, psychologists Walter D. Scott and John B. Watson contributed Applied Psychological theory to the field of advertising. Scott asserted that “Man has been called the reasoning animal but he could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible” (Benjamin & Baker, p. 119-120). He demonstrated this through his advertising technique of a direct command to the consumer. The former chair at Johns Hopkins University, John B. Watson was a highly recognized psychologist in the 1920s. After leaving the field of academia he turned his attention towards advertising where he implemented the concepts of behaviourism into advertising. This focused on appealing to the basic emotions of the consumer: love, hate, and fear. This type of advertising proved to be extremely effective as it suited the changing social context which led to heavy influence of future advertising strategy and cemented the place of psychology in advertising.
2.3 Methods of Advertisement
Bulla and Scott (1994) contend that, the important kick off of advertisement was the emergence of the pamphlet as an advertising medium. The early examples of these pamphlets disclose their sponsorship by companies wanting to generate goodwill for their activities. The low cost of posters and handbills encouraged a number of publishers to experiment with other Media of Advertising like Print Media, Electronic Media like Internet, Newspaper, Radio and Television.
Print media is a very commonly used medium of advertising by businessman. It includes advertising through newspaper, magazines, journals and the like and it is also called press advertising. Newspapers are included in paper print out which are published in English or Hausa. These are the sources of news, opinions and current events (Mc Quails, 2005). In addition, Newspapers are also a very common medium of advertising. The advertiser communicates his or her message through newspaper which reaches to millions of people. According to Stone (1982), the advantages of newspaper stem from having wide circulation and a single advertisement in the newspaper can quickly reach to a large number of people. The cost of advertising is relatively low because of wide publication. Generally, newspapers are published daily. Thus, the same advertisementcan be repeated frequently and remind a reader every day. The matter of advertisement can be given to newspaper at a very short notice.
The limitations of newspapers are that they are read soon after they are received and then are kept generally in some corner of the houses. After 24 hours a fresh newspaper they appear and this makes the life of the newspaper short. People read newspapers mainly for news and pay casual attention to advertisement. Illiterate persons cannot read and thus, newspaper advertising does not benefit them. Periodicals are publications which come out regularly but not on a daily basis. These may be published on a weekly, fortnightly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly or even yearly basis. For example magazines and journals like Femina in Nigeria.
Radio Advertising is another kind of media. People are aware about a radio and must have heard advertisement for various products in it. In radio there are short breaks during transmission of any programmed which is filled by advertisements of products and services. There are also popular programmers sponsored by advertisers. It is more effective as people hear it on a regular basis. It is also useful to illiterates, who can not read and write. There are places where newspapers reading may not possible,but one can hear a radio. For example, one can hear a radio while traveling on road or working at home; but one can not read a newspaper. Similarly, while driving one can hear a radio but cannot read a newspaper. Regular listener may remember what he or she has heard. But, occasional listeners tend to forget what they have heard in Radio. The message that any advertisement wants to communicate may not be proper as there is no chance to hear it again immediately. There may be some other disturbances that distort communication. In comparison to Television, a radio is less effective as it lacks visual impact (Stone, 1982). Television advertising is also form of media. With rapid growth of information technology and electronic media, television has topped the list among the media of advertising. TV has the most effective impact as it appeals to both eye and the ear (Ibid).
The most recently advanced form of media is the internet. According to Stone (1982), Internet has also brought about a lot of changes in advertisings Internet means that one is catering to a select group of audience rather than a mass audience .Today celebrity endorsement has attracted immense debate on whether it really contributes to the brand building process or whether it is just another lazy tool to make the brand more visible in the minds of the consumers. Although it has been observed that the presence of a well- known personality helps in solving the problem of over-communication that is becoming more prominent these days, there are few undesirable impacts of this practice on the brand. The issue of matching the values of the celebrity with the brand values is also very important, i.e. getting the right celebrity to endorse the right brand. Consumers perceive the brand as having superior quality because it has been endorsed by a credible source. This makes endorsement as one of the indictors of quality for any brand (Ibid).
2.4 The Impact of Advertisement with Respect to the Consumer
Television advertising is most effective means of communication. This is because it has an audio-visual impact (Stone, 1982). With catchy slogans, song and dance sequences, famous personalities exhibiting products, TV advertising has a lasting impact. With the varieties of channels and programmers, advertisers have a lot of choice to select the channel and time to advertise. With regional channels coming up, any person even illiterates can watch the advertisements and understand them by seeing and hearing. Apart from the above, TV advertisements are usually expensive to prepare as well as to telecast. With almost every manufacturer trying to communicate their message through TV advertising, the impact among the viewers is also increased. Nowadays, people are switching on channels whenever there is commercial break (Bovée and Thill, 2005).
Internet is the latest method of communication and gathering information (Ibid). If a person has a computer and with an access to internet he/she can have information from all over the world within a fraction of second. Through internet one can go to the website of any manufacturer or service provider and gather information. Sometimes when one does not have website addresses he or she is helped by search engines or portals. The merit of internet is that, information from all over the world is made available at the door steps and also users can see the advertisement at their own time and as per the requirement.
All the media of advertising discussed above are mostly used by consumers while they are at home or inside any room, except radio and newspapers or magazines to some extent. Moreover, in all these media, the consumer has also to spend some money to
access the advertisement. However, there are other media available, where the consumer has to spend nothing and he or she can see such advertisements while moving outside. Some of such advertising are hoardings, posters, vehicular displays, gift items and the like. Large hoardings are placed on iron frames or roof tops or walls and can be seen when one is moving on the road. These are normally boards on which advertisements are painted or electronically designed so that they are visible during day or night.
2.5 Empirical studies
This section provides the empirical studies related to the study. The empirical evidence in this study is divided to world and Nigeria related studies.
World Related Studies
Muhammad et al (2014) conducted a study on the impact of consumer perception and advertisement on consumer buying behavior. The study was conducted in Pakistan. 150 questionnaires were distributed to randomly sampled respondents. The study found out that advertisement had strong positive impact on consumer buying behaviour. It was also found that quality advertisement and positive perception can really play virtual role in improving consumer buying behaviour. However, the state of advertising whichhad more effect to consumer buying behavior was not stated, a gap this intended to fill.
Niazi et al (2011) studied on the effective advertising and its influence on consumer buying behavior. The study was conducted in Pakistan. The methodology used was quantitative technique. 200 questionnaires were distributed and probability sampling was used in a sample for data collection. The findings of the study revealed that there is huge relationship between advertisement and consumer buying behavior. It also established the relationship between environmental response and consumer buying behaviours. According to the study, consumers are buying products which they see in advertisement more than emotionally. However, the research did not check consumer psychological behaviour and social concerns the gap of this study intended to fill.
Arshud et al (2014) studied on the impact of effective advertising on consumer behaviour. The study was conducted in seven cities in Pakistan. It used probability sampling of 300 respondents. The study found that TV advertising is more persuasive than other advert to convince customer to buy product because it shows and makes perception to consumer. The gap is that, it did notlook about customer/consumer buying behavior in terms of how price can affect consumer behavior. Also the study was conducted in different setting. This was conducted in Nigeria which has different environment compared to Pakistan.
Bansal and Gupta (2014) studied on the impact of newspaper advertisement on consumer behaviour. The study selected a sample 1017 advertisements from different English newspapers which appeared recently in 6 weeks. They study found that many advertising in newspapers were informational and they were perfect in convincing consumer to buy store products. However, the study on less the way price affects consumer buying in advertising.
Vinerean et al (2013) studied on the effect of social media marketing on onlineconsumer behaviour. 200 questionnaires were distributed online by using random sampling from Lucian Bloga University. It was found that customers are significantly convinced by the advert in social media and influenced to buy. But on another hand, the study revealed that people do not trust online social media advert because of security. This study covered only the University and did not use demographic variables in the data collection and did not examine the influence of price change on consumer behavior, a gap which the study intended to fill.
Nigeria Related Studies
Kimaro (2010) studied on integrated marketing communication effective in the telecommunication industry, the case being Zain Nigeria. Questionnaires were distributed to respondents in Dar es Salaam. Sales promotion was found to be most influential tools rather than others such as advertising, direct marketing, sales promotion and public relation. However, television advertising and sales promotion offering special substation rate and special service package at reduced rates were the most influential tools that can highly affect consumer decision. This study focused on among students of federal polytechnic, Bida, fast jet being the case under study.
Lusama (2010) conducted a study on the impact of selected factors on effective advertising and the case being Nigeria Telecommunication Company limited (TTCL). Questionnaires were distributed to 130 respondents and descriptive method was used. The study indicated that less spending on advertising shortage of support by top management leads to ineffective advertising. This in turn leads to non-cost effective advertising poor brand and company image and low awareness ofcompanies’ product and services among prospective customers.
2.6 Conceptual Framework of the Study
Moskal and Leydens (2000) states that conceptual a framework is a written or visual presentation that explains either graphically or in narrative form. Reichel and Ramey (1987) added that a conceptual framework is a set of broad ideas and principles taken from relevant fields of enquiry and used to structure a subsequentpresentation sometimes a conceptual framework sometimes is referred to as a theoretical framework.
It is a type of intermediate theory that attempts to connect to all aspects of inquiry such as problem definition, objectives, literature review, methodology, data collection and analysis. Conceptual framework can act like a map that gives coherence to empirical inquiry. Because conceptual framework is potentially so close to empirical inquiry, it takes different forms depending upon the research question or problem.
In this study, a framework was developed to conceptualize the interrelation between a dependent variable and four independent variables. Assessment of the elements/variables of the conceptual framework assisted to understand the phenomenon because assessment of each element/variable was thought to provide an answer to specific research questions developed above. The elements/variables considered in this conceptual framework were dependent and independent variables.