ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER EDUCATION

The study set out to examine the role advertisement in educating the consumers with viewers of select commercials as a case study. For effective analysis the study sought consumer’s reaction whether advertising really educated consumers of goods and services in Oron urban, and whether there were other factors that contributed to consumer education other than advertising. The method used was the survey method and the questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Two Hundred and Fifty (250) copies of questionnaire containing twenty-three (23) items were systematically distributed to viewers of television commercials in five (5) zones, Uyo City Polytechnic Community, Okossi, Ukoko, Oruko and Uyubia. Two hundren and forty (240) of the 250 copies were filled and returned, but only two hundren and thirty were considered good enough to be used in the analysis. Data collected were analysis using the simple percentage in calculating the tabulated figure. The findings of the study indicate that out of the 230 respondents, 70% of the respondents were influenced by advertisement. In view of the finding of this study advertising was found to influence consumer education in advertising is an active and indispensable tool to ensure ethical behavior in the market place. Futhermore, the research confirmed that factors other than advertising equally influenced consumer education and their purchase behavior, Base on these findings, it was recommended that advertising messages should be packaged in such a way to educate the public about the product and not only to sell the product. Apart from this advertiser and manufacturers should know that consumer education is affected not only by all emphasis and energy should not be concentrated on advertising at the expense of product demonstration. product package/exhibition message contents and pack information/insert.