CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

With the liberalization of telecommunication industry in 2001, mobile telephony has rapidly

become the most popular method of voice communication in Nigeria. Growth has been rapid that

Nigeria was described as one of the fastest growing worldwide market for Mobile

telecommunication. Through the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) the regulatory body,

the Nigerian Government modernized and expanded the mobile telecommunications network and

services by granting global system for mobile telecommunication (GSM) license to three service

providers in January 2001. These providers included Mobile Telecommunication Network (MTN)

Nigeria, Econet Wireless (now Airtel), and the first national carrier, NITEL (Mtel). In 2002, the

second national carrier, Globacom, was additionally granted license to commence operation. Since

then the Global system for mobile telecommunication (GSM) services and several other fixed

wireless telecommunication services deliver telephone services to Nigerians and the world. These

telecommunication companies introduced great innovations and continued to provide aggressive and

varied marketing strategies in order to establishing meaningful and differentiated presence through

their names brands. They did this to increase company identification, attract and retain customers

and improved market place efficiency and effectiveness (Peter, 2014).

In addition, advertising is one great activity in Communication that has being with man right

from time. It is often experienced either consciously or unconsciously by everybody, every day, if

not every hour or minute. It has no doubt assumed great prominence and pervasiveness in all facets

of human endeavours. (OKoro, 2005, p.93). In almost every place around us, one hardly goes by

without seeing bill boards and spectaculars. Neither can one relax without radio sounds and

television images, magazine and newspaper pictures, all emanating from one point or the other and

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demanding persuasive attention. This perhaps evokes advertising and as such, it is everywhere

(Akpan, 2006, p. 169; Baran, 2004, p.377). Primarily, advertising tells and persuades consumers to

patronize products, services and idea. This perhaps underscores its basic functions of marketing and

communication. Thus every form of advertising is either aimed at achieving great sale of products,

so to maximize profit or to provide social services to the public in its fulfillment of persuasive

information and communication goal.

From the beginning and from its persuasive nature, advertising is known to have grown and

achieved a tremendous feet in marketing communications. In Ogbodo‟s view, (1999, p.49)

“advertising has not only become an integral part of our social and economic system, but has grown

over the years to assume tremendous proportions both as a business activity and as a social

phenomenon”. Thus, the development of advertising has no doubt doted great impact in the

economic and social transformation of the world today. Arens (2006, p.58), likens the economic

impact of advertising to the world as:

A break shot in billiards or pool… he moment a company begins to advertise, it sets of a chain reaction of economic events which is like a force of the shot and the economic                    environment in which it occurred.

In spite of the great changes and development that have occurred in advertising, its practice and

goals remains the same. What is different in advertising today is the level of sophistication it has

attained and the increasing scholarly attention it is attracting (Nwankpa, 2007, p.1).

The growth in sophistication of advertising practice is predicated on the changing nature of

the world (Nwankpa, 2007, p.5). As the world changes, so do advertising. The changes in the media

of advertising which has ushered in the computer network, is a major contribution to the level of

sophistication of advertising. More so, the growing complexities in the market place of our times and

the increased production of goods demanding for more attention, has made advertising to be

sophisticated. It is in this era that advertising rates are highly charged by the media, due to their