ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER EDUCATION (A STUDY OF VIEWERS OF SELECT COMMERCIALS IN ORON METROPOLIS)

ADVERTISING AND CONSUMER EDUCATION (A STUDY OF VIEWERS OF SELECT COMMERCIALS IN ORON METROPOLIS)

CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION

Advertising consists of all the activities in presenting to a group a non-personal; oral or visual, openly sponsored massage regarding a product, service or idea. This massage is disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by an identified sponsor. It is equally important to know that there is a significant Distinction between advertising and an advertisement.

Advertisement is a massage itself. Advertising is a process; it is a programme or a series of activities necessary to prepare the massage and to get it to the intended market (Stanton 2001:452).

Advertising is a powerful communication force and a vital marketing tool helping to sell goods, services, images and ideas through the channel of information and persuasion.

It is an aspect of the marketing and communication process rather than a separate activity carried on by distinctive group of professionals independently of other marketing activities.

According to the American Marketing Association (AMA) “Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of idea, goods find services by an identified sponsored” Advertising is aim at selling good, ideas, service, create demand, familiarize the public with the use of the product, prepare the way for the salesman, create goodwill, introduce new styles and custom.

Advertising, as an important aspect of marketing as well as form of communication aims at influencing consumer behavior. The goals set for advertising are communication task to reach a defined audience to a given extent and during a time period.

Advertising is aimed at mass groups rather than industrial consumers; it must make use of basic appeals, which include sex, prestige, esteem and hunger to obtain the receivers attention. It is however, increasingly difficult to avoid it intrusion into our lives.

Advertising intent is mostly persuasive, Atelly (2004) rightly opined that” all successes in business, in industrial production, in investment depend upon the inescapable aspect of our life. There are three major objectives of advertising.

• To produce awareness and knowledge about products and services.
• To stimulates though and action about it.
• To create liking preference for it.

Advertisers should have adequate empirically based knowledge of the consumer behavior, which is an indispensable tool in any attempt to sell products or services to any group of consumers. They should be fairly knowledgeable about or at least have an explanatory idea of how consumers have an explanatory idea of how consumers within their target market are likely to respond to their goods and services. They should equally be able to establish the rationale for the actions or reactions of potential consumers. They should know that deeply entrenched feelings or sentiments by consumers cannot be charged overnight. Therefore, knowledge of the consumer is the beginning of successful advertising.

Advertising massages have been used to educate the consumers about the usefulness of the product or service; the study seeks to establish the relationship between advertising promotions and consumer education in Oron Urban.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Advertising practice over the years have continued to thrive on increased sales of products based on increased consumers education. The production of commercials for television viewers is improving by the day due to recent advances in technology.

The consumers have normal behavior to resist the purchase of goods due to one thing or the other, such as lack of adequate information about product or ineffective communication of the product that can satisfy consumer’s needs and wants.

• OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are;

1. To ascertain whether advertising really educates consumers of goods and services in Oron Urban.
2. To find out whether there are other factors that contribute to consumers education.

• To determine if all the commercials used are educative.
  • RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. Do advertising really educates consumers goods and services in Oron Urban?
2. Are there other factors that contribute to consumer education?

• Are all the commercials used educative model?
  • JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

The finding of this research study will help in improving the quality of advertising massages by the advertisers. It is expected to positively influence the standard of advertising in the country in as much as its role in educating the consumers concern.

This study will also try and establish the relationship between advertising and consumer purchasing behavior. It will equally be of immense benefit to the advertising practitioners, teachers and students both in advertising and other related fields as well as many others who will come into contact into with the material as a reference material.

• DELIMITATION OF STUDY

The field of advertising is a wide one sometimes classified into many perceptual variables in terms of contents, context, discipline and application. The study does not seek to cover the entire field of advertising but the area that affects the consumers, mostly consumer education.

Therefore, the study is concerned with the area of advertising influence on consumer education and behavior in terms of patronage, satisfaction and purchasing decision. Also, the study is restricted to the viewers of Television Commercials in Oron urban for convenience and financial reasons.

• DEFINITION OF TERMS

For proper understanding of the study, the following terms are defined.