CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Customers nowadays are bombarded with means of communication by firms and companies. Companies in an effort to access and have presence on customers mind, they make use of a range of advertisements. There is a intense competition in all sectors of the market for promoting various products and services by firms working in order to influence consumers during their purchasing behavior. For that reason, companies attempt to use an integrated marketing communication in an attempt to require an attention by their existing and potential prospects. This makes the majority of them to result to billboards for their advertising, marketing and promotion.
Billboards are captivating and appealing marketing vehicles. The meaning universality of the messages, images and graphics, which are made use of in Billboards are essential and many firms make use of billboards for advertising and marketing and it is effective for the perception of the consumer purchase decision. Consumer Purchase choice is the decision-making process and physical activity individuals engage in when assessing, acquiring, using or dealing with products and services (Duyen, 2016). Customer purchase decision focuses on how people make decisions to spend available resources (time, money, effort) on consumption related products (Ayanwale, Alimi, & Ayanbimipe, 2005). According to Mark and Owusu, (2017), the consumer goes through a process before making a purchase choice. Through communication the marketer has the ability to get the attention of the customer which is later turned into a set of observable buyer reactions, product choice, brand choice, dealership choice, purchase timing and purchase quantity. This clarifies the crucial function that advertising plays in impacting the purchasing decisions of consumers.
The success of billboard advertising design is mainly connected to understanding the qualities and restrictions of this advertising medium. The essential characteristic is that viewing the advertisement takes place in motion mode and the short time available for individuals to absorb and place the advertisement in a surrounding environment with lots of sensory stimuli (Celsi & Olson, 1988). Consequently, an advertiser's capacity to be successful in meeting the objectives of billboard advertising is mainly associated with his ability to know the specificity and limitations of billboard advertising. These functions need distinct techniques for communicating advertising messages and an innovative design method (Lopez‐Pumarejo & Bassell, 2009). It at the same time needs cautious selection of billboard locations and billboard high quality checks. The primary advertising elements are designed very effectively and comprehensively complement and support each other. They form a complete, innovative, and unified image capable of attracting attention and maintaining the interest of passers-by and therefore, efficiently presenting a high advertising claim in a short time and from the farthest distance (Chan & Cheng, 2012; Till & Baack, 2005).
Billboard advertising medium has a unique character of using the spacious surface given by the medium to creatively present properly designed images and boldly printed words to attract the attention of highly mobile audience in the cities to the product they promote. People are so much engaged in lots of tasks, because of this spend the majority of their time outside their homes, and this makes them have bit or no time to update themselves with required business information. As a result of this, whatever they are exposed to during the hustling of the day captures their attention, centers on their sub-consciousness and affects their purchase decisions (Mustapha, Karaca & Kitapci, 2010).
Advertising has an interest in assisting to increase the value credited to a product, as when it comes to completing brand products. There is the typical existence of a number of brands of the exact same products all priced competitively. Nevertheless, before the purchase of competing brands, choice in between items should be made initially. The role of advertising in establishing customer behavior has been under studies for a number of years. Nevertheless, a few of the arguments, assumptions and policy options recommended are not based on a detailed understanding of the way advertising works with consumers and its influence on markets.
This study will consider how actually advertising manipulate language to suite their function and potentially attempt to make consumers aware of this confused state, which advertisers have put them. It will likewise be able to look on how advertising of goods using a persuasive language impacts the consumer purchasing behaviour.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Billboard does not offer room for comments to advertisers or brand owners. They have no way of understanding how efficient billboard is to them and their brand. For many years it is understood that advertising has impact on people's behavior and choice, however people do not consider what media has most impact on people. The failure of billboard to target particular group, has made it difficult for it to cater for specific segment of the market. The cost of billboard is really high, and there is a need for advertisers to know if their adverts have great impacts on the target market. With this, they know their money is not wasted. There is a a great deal of billboard advertisements by different firms which implies there is consistent competition amongst brands. They wish to know if the desired message is getting to their audience. No brand wishes to be left behind in the competition. Billboard provides limited information regarding products. This role of billboard advertisement has been undermined for many years. Some brands do not also understand the correct medium to reach their target markets thus they end up carrying out uncoordinated advertisements. This study will examine how efficient billboard advertising works on consumer behavior and preference. It will likewise help to understand the advantage billboard advertising might give them.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of the study was to determine the impact of billboard advertising and consumer purchase behaviour. However, the specific objectives of the study are:
i) To examine the techniques in billboard advertising for consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria
ii) To examine the impact of billboard advertising on Consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria
iii) To identify the challenges of billboard advertising for consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria
1.4 Research Questions
The following research questions were provided with answers in the course of this study:
i) What are the techniques in billboard advertising for consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria?
ii) What is the impact of billboard advertising on Consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria?
iii) What are the challenges of billboard advertising for consumer purchase intention of selected Fast Moving Goods company in Lagos, State Nigeria?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses will be tested in this research:
i) There is a significant relationship between billboards advertisement and consumer buying behavour
ii) There is no significant correlation between billboards advertising and brand preference among consumers
iii) There is no significant correlation between billboards advertisements and awareness creation about product and services among consumers
1.6 Significance of the Study
This study aims to examine the impact of billboard advertising and consumer purchase behaviour. Understanding of variables such as social factors, cultural, environment, psychological, societal status among others will be able to help further understand how these variables affect the decision making of consumer.
This study is significant to managers of organization, government and students of higher learning or researchers. It is significant to managers of organization i.e., management at strategic level because it will assist them to verify the economic implication involved with advertisement and compare the cost-plus benefit on the enhanced sales and profit level.
This study is also significant to government because the economic importance of advertisement is it contribution to the growth or expansion of most businesses. As such it contributes to the economic growth and stability to the Nigerian economy due to tax accrued to the government as revenue generated.
Finally, manufacturers and large retailers will benefit from this study, as it will depict the need to go beyond the mentality of merely brand experience. Companies will be able to use the new findings of the study to customer brand experience into their products to innovate bottom up. This may lead to more efficient budget allocation for design and marketing, resulting in greater customer retention and improved brand equity.
1.7 Scope of the Study
This study is designed to understand the effect of billboard advertising on consumer buying behaviour and preference. Therefore, the intent of this study is to address the impact of billboard advertising on consumer behaviour in Lagos State, Nigeria.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
Some of the limitations of this research work are: firstly, time and finance constraints affected this research work in one way or the other. Secondly, is the lack of accessibility to relevant data to be used for the research work.
Also, the attitude of most organisations in term of secrecy was a limitation to the research work. Some employees were not at ease in discussing their views regarding their advertising methods used on consumers due to reasons best known to them.
1.9 Definition of Terms
The following terms were used in the process of carrying out this study:
Consumer: these are people or organizations that purchase products or services. The term also refers to hiring goods and services. They are humans or other economic entities that use a good or service. Furthermore, they do not sell on that item that they bought. They are the end users in the distribution chain of goods and services. In fact, sometimes the consumer might not be the buyer.
Consumer Buying Behaviour: this is the attitude, intentions and decisions i.e., the consumer’s behaviour in the market place before buying a product (Belch & Belch, 2017).
Billboard: Billboards are a huge outdoor advertising structure that is found mainly in areas with heavy traffic, such as on busy roads. Billboards are big ads for pedestrians and drivers to pass through.
Advertising: Researchers have defined advertising differently and there is a need to establish an interpretation that all people at all locations understand.
