INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING ON CONSUMERS’ PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR OF TOOTHPASTE BRANDS

INTRODUCTION

The study looked at the influence of advertising on consumers’ purchasing behaviour of toothpaste in Uyo Urban. The survey research method was used for this study with population of 436,606. Data were gathered using questionnaire from four hundred respondents. However, three hundred and eighty copies were completed and returned valid for the study. The objectives of the study were to: determine whether consumers in Uyo Urban have access or are exposed to advertisement on toothpaste; ascertain if advertising influences Uyo Urban consumers’ purchasing behaviour of toothpaste; determine if advertising increases Uyo Urban consumers’ preference for a particular brand of toothpaste and to determine if there are other factors than advertisement that influence Uyo Urban consumers’ buying behaviour of particular toothpaste brand. With Uses and Gratifications and Cognitive Dissonance theories of communication as theoretical frameworks, it was found out from the study that: toothpaste consumers in Uyo Urban were exposed to advertisements on toothpaste brands; advertising did not influence consumers’ purchasing behaviour of toothpaste brands in Uyo; although consumers’ of toothpaste in Uyo Urban are exposed to advertisements of different toothpaste brands, it did not increase their preference of their toothpaste brand and that there are other factors than advertisement that influence Uyo Urban consumers of toothpaste brands. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended majorly that advertisers of toothpaste meant for Uyo market should not only rely on advertisement to sell their products but should incorporate other factors like affordable price, quality taste and satisfaction that will be derived from using the product, packaging, etc. to help influence the patronage of the advertised product.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Advertisement is one of the major tools used to stimulate consumer’s demand for goods and services. In other to know the influence of advertisement on consumer’s behaviour, it is necessary to know what advertising itself is and its goal and purpose. Wikipedia (2018) defines advertising as, “an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored service or idea. Advertising is differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that, the message is not directed to particular individual. 

Advertising is communicated through various mass media including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail and new media like blogs, social websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the medium is referred to as an advertisement or “ad” for short. Terence (2007) defines 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. The basic purpose of advertising is to communicate the news to the user or the customer that there is something new in the market. Beyond the above stated purpose of advertising, it also serves as 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, 1997) because of the number 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 products or services in the visual form so that the customer can understand it easily. So advertising has become important for business nowadays (Bardi, 2010)

A good advertisement persuades the customers to the final purchase and keeps them motivated to do a certain action (Kenneth and Donald, 2010). So advertisement has an important role to play in today’s business. Advertisement not only persuade the customers to buy but also gives them the options that can be considered when they go out to purchase and to distinguish the products among many. So when the customers go to purchase anything, he will once think that there is a certain product with certain features (Agwu, 2013: Ikpefan, Owolabi and Agwu, 2014). It has also 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; Edwin, 2014).