THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTERNET ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOR AMONG AKWA IBOM STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background of the Study
Internet has grown tremendously in its both applications and number of users due to its unique characteristics of flexibility, interactivity and personalization. It has been a very useful tool for communication, entertainment, marketing, education and electronic trade. (Ko; Jung; Kim and Shim 2008; Koyuncu and Lien 2011). The revolutionary change brought forth by information technology has an important impact on our daily lives. It has transformed the way we do business by allowing retailers to offer unlimited range of products and services to all consumers from around the world at any point in time. According to Silk; Klein and Berndt (2010), assumed that the Internet has emerged as an advertising medium, in their views, many companies have turned to the Internet to advertise their products and services; and that the Internet is deemed to be the most significant direct marketing channel for the global market place.
Kotler, (2006), explained that advertisers and companies are spending millions of naira into internet advertising just to obtain greater return on investment on ads. The above assumption was further supported by Edwards, (2005), when he postulated that companies, who knows its onus and wished to continue enjoying the patronage of prospective market cannot joke with advertising, especially direct advertising such as Internet advertising.
The Internet as a medium of communication has existed since the late 1960s, when a limited number of computers were connected in the United States from the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), according to Chaffey; Mayer; Johnson and Ellis-Chadwick, (2006). Until the advent of the World Wide Web in 1990, the Internet was almost entirely unknown outside Universities and corporate research departments and was accessible mostly via command line interface such as Telnet and File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
In the words of Griffiths (2008), indicates that the recent dramatic growth in the use of the Internet has occurred because of the development of the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web changed the Internet from a difficult – to – use tool for academic and technicians to an easy-to-use tool for finding businesses and consumers. Since then, the Internet has grown to become an almost ubiquitous aspect of modern information system, becoming highly commercial and widely accepted medium for all sorts of consumer relations such as advertising, online sales and services, (Asemah, 2010).
In supporting the above claims, Korgaonkar and Wolin (2006), postulate that the internet has given consumers more control in accessing information on product and services. There are several factors that contribute to consumers pull for online content and as such, Ko; Jung; Kim and Shims (2008), explains that the Internet enables consumers to access an unlimited range of product and services from companies around the world, and it has reduces the time and effort they spend on physical shopping.
Consumers according to Smith (2009), posits that consumers play a much more active role in searching for information online with some with some goals in mind, and that goal can influence individual behaviours and responses to online information and advertisement. With the rapid advancement in the computer industry, many companies have made the Internet as part of their advertising media mix to take advantage of the online technologies.
According to Calisir (2009), the Internet has become a popular advertising platform because marketers found that the Internet possess greater flexibility and control over the advertising materials. No wonder, Aliker (2012), claims that customers are becoming more powerful, more knowledgeable, and more sophisticated, and research into modern consumer behavior is increasingly important for business and thus, Internet advertising plays a principal role when compared to other traditional means of advertising in influencing consumer to purchase an advertised product or services.
This study seeks to determine and explain the effectiveness of Internet advertising in stimulating consumer response with reference to Akwa Ibom State University students, especially the student in Obio Akpa Campus of the institution.

1.2 Statement of the Problem
Despite the effectiveness of Internet advertising as one of the most personalized media of direct advertising as postulated by many communication scholars, there are some challenges associated with the use of Internet as an advertising medium in promoting and marketing of goods and services to a defined prospective market. Some of the many challenges of Internet advertising as stated by Wakukha (2011) are its inability to reach and creation of awareness to wide spectrum of the audience due to lack of Internet network experience by most target market; Its lack of advert recall and its lack of potentiality of influencing purchase decision positively.
These and many more issues associated with Internet advertising formed the focus of this research study. As this study will thoroughly investigate the effectiveness of Internet advertising on consumer behaviour by conducting a survey of Akwa Ibom State University students.

1.3 Objectives of the Study
To assess the exposure of students to Internet advertising
To ascertain the extent of student’s exposure to Internet
To find out if Internet advertising can influence the buying behavior of Akwa Ibom State University students.
To figure out why Akwa Ibom State University students prefer Internet advertising to other forms of advertising.

1.4 Research Questions
Are students exposed to Internet advertising?
How often are students exposed to Internet advertising?
Can Internet advertising influence the buying behavior of Akwa Ibom State University students?
Why do Akwa Ibom State University students prefer Internet advertising to other forms of advertising?

Significance of the Study

At the completion of this study, it will be relevant to the following persons.
This study will aid advertisers in preparation of advertising brief either to advertise a new product or to promote an existing product which has suffered patronage.
Students and academicians will find this study relevant as it will help them in further research of this nature.
Through this study, advertisers will be able to decipher advertising strategies that can motivate and propel consumers to patronize a given product, especially via Internet advertising.

Scope of the Study

This study is focused on the effectiveness of Internet advertising on consumer behavior, using Akwa Ibom State University as the study area. The researcher will restrict or delimit the study area to Obio Akpa Campus of the institution, because this will enable the researcher to effectively sampled and gathered accurate data on the aforementioned project topic and equally help the researcher to effectively utilize the limited resource set aside to execute this project. At its completion, data collated through survey method on the four research questions will be generalized.