CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Advertising is a powerful marketing communication tool used by companies to fulfill the promotional task. It is an impersonal form of communication or presentation of goods, ideas, or services conducted through paid media under open or identified sponsorship. All about advertising is a sponsor sending a message, called advertisement, through one or more mass media (radio, television, newspapers, magazines) to reach large numbers of potential users or buyers of a product. By itself, advertising is a vital marketing tool that helps to sell goods, services, images and ideas through information persuasion. Many companies consider advertising a superior promotion tool to personal selling, sales promotion or publicity. This is because advertising provides multiple presentations to masses of people with one message, compared with personal selling that involves individual contact with each prospect. Sales promotion frequently requires individual also. Publicity may provide multiple simultaneous presentations like advertising, but the firm has limited control on the message content and placement. While advertising is given such a credit, it is crucial to understand therefore, that we appreciate from the start the real place of advertising in marketing. The “best advertisement” cannot sell a product that is not available, nor will it convince people to buy products that they feel are of poor quality, too expensive or below expectation. As a matter of fact, the best way to kill a bad product is to advertise it. We define advertising as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and service through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor. Advertising

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is used by many organizations to communicate specific messages about themselves, their products and services, or their modes of behaviour to a predefined target audience in other to stimulate a response from the audience. The response may be perceptual in nature: for example, the consumer develops specific views or opinions about the product or brand, or these feelings are altered by the ad. The response could be behavioural: for instance the consumer buys the product or increases the amount that he or she buys. Advertisers that sponsor advertisements include not only business firms, but also non-profit and social institutions such as charities, museums and religious organizations that promote causes to various target publics. Advertising is a good way to inform and persuade, whether the purpose is to build brand preference for Nokia mobile phones worldwide, or to motivate a nation’s young consumers drink more milk, or to encourage smoker to give up the habit.

However, advertisers should be cautions in terms of how best to use their advertising budget in order to achieve desired communication goals.

Advertising has been called a powerful sales/marketing tool. For any business to succeed, especially in these times when competition has become tough, an efficient and effective marketing program is a must.

Marketing is a creative activity that focuses on finding and servicing customers. A good marketing program must coordinate effectively the marketing mix of which promotion is a part. Advertising is a powerful promotional tool and a vital aspect in communicating to consumer and helping to sell goods, services images and ideas.

Advertising has long been a fascinating socio-political topic, which both poses problems and evokes controversy. As Nigeria has developed, as a market economy so as

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advertising. New Agencies have emerged, more media have been established and one consequence of this growth is the increasing impact of advertising on the society. As Kolter (1988: 427) has said, “Advertising permeates almost all facets of our society’s everyday life. Whenever we scan a magazine or newspaper, listen to a radio, watch television program, open our mail, and walk down an urban street, the chances are, we will be exposed to commercial messages”. It has become virtually impossible to escape contact with some form of advertising or other advertising on its own rarely sells product. Advertising must interact with both the other promotion mix variables, and the other marketing concerns including product development and research. Most advertisement are designed to make both personal selling and sales promotion easier by informing, persuading, reminding, reassuring, reinforcing and establishing positive attitudes and images towards product and a company. Thus, advertising enhances the potential customers response to the company’s activities.

Advertising tells us what to eat and drink, what to wear and almost how to live. Advertising has thus become potent environmental factor, influencing not only consumers but also the society as a whole and modifying its perceptions, attitudes, aspirations, and value system and is in return influenced by society.

Consumption pattern, as the name suggest can be define as the mode of people’s spending on goods and services which they consume. This mode of spending is usually influenced by “person centered factors” as learning, beliefs, education, attitude, motivation as well as “situation centered factors” as legal, religion, economic, cultural, family and reference group. Consumption pattern can also be said to mean group buying behaviour or spending pattern.

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On the part of civil servants, their consumption pattern is also influenced by both, the “persons centred factors and situation centred factors”. However the extent it is influenced by advertising is yet uncertain. A simple examination on consumption pattern or buying behaviour can give its meaning ads both an act and also a process. As conceived of by Block ET in Udeagha (Ibid. 730), buyer, behaviour or consumer behaviour consist of the “acts” or individual directly involved in obtaining and using economic goods and services including the decision process that precede and determine these acts.

He contended that it involves such activities as the purchase of a given product, such as car, a piece of furniture or the refusal to purchase it; the choice of the given company or store as ones sources of supplies of goods and services or the choice of a given institution as one’s place of learning.

As a process, Udeagha gave direction on why it is a process. He said that buying behaviour as a process is evidenced by various models of consumer or buyer behaviour which are used to explain the purchase behaviour of the buyer as a process consisting of several stages or phases.

1.2       STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Enugu has been the capital of former Eastern region and has attracted infrastructures and business organizations. This has raised the income level of people of this state. In attempt to strengthen their marketing positions, the manufacturers of consumer goods engage in consumer advertising in Enugu State but they are not quite

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sure whether the advertisement has encouraging effects on the consumption patterns of government paid workers residing in Enugu State, hence the need for the study.

1.3         RESEARCH QUESTION

The following research questions are generated:-

1.                  Does advertising have effect on the consumption of consumer goods by government paid workers residing in Enugu State?

2.                  Which of the classes of government paid workers in Enugu State (low level education and highly educated ones) responds more to advertising appeal?

3.                  Does poverty affect the influence of advertising on the consumption of consumer goods by government paid workers?

4.                  Does illiteracy have effect on the consumption of consumer goods by government paid workers in Enugu State.

1.4         PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of the study is to determine the kinds of effects advertising have on the consumption of consumer goods by government paid workers residing in Enugu State.

1.5       OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The objectives of the study are as follows:-

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