A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF ELECTRONIC MARKETING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN ABUJA FCT

   

A STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF ELECTRONIC MARKETING ON CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN ABUJA FCT

(A case study of Airtel Nigeria Plc., Abuja)

ABSTRACT

The increase of technologies in the business world marketer’s job changes from billboard and print advertisement to more on e-marketing mediums. The design, the target audience specified with the high increase of online marketing, online buying and selling, and online companies web-design. Today’s companies focused on designing the web-page for marketing their product rather than showing advertisements on TV, billboard, magazines, newspapers etc. e-marketing is the future of marketing, it is quick, less costly and give accurate information on time. This research shows that almost 80-90% people are attracted with the online advertisement which is done mostly on social websites, as social webs users are not specific to gender and age group so everyone see their type of advertisement on their Facebook pages. Today’s customers are buying products mostly after watching online advertisement rather than by reading a newspapers, magazines or watching T.V. As today’s customers are not brand loyal anymore so with the help of online marketing company give updates of their products or services to maintain loyalty with their customers. For staying into the nowadays business world, companies should adopt e-marketing, e-buying and e-selling, online banking facilities to purchase online goods, ATM cards, mobile marketing and other these kinds of marketing tool. E-marketing is the golden success factor for nowadays marketing firms. A good source of capturing the overall world marketing through online marketing is by imposing advertisement on YouTube, Facebook, E-mail, E-webs for both business advertisement and consumer buying products and services advertisements. For the greater success of any business companies are quickly adopting e-marketing style of advertisement because they see more spark in e-marketing rather than advertised on other commercial tools. Because of e-marketing, e-buying and selling increase, and because of e-buying and selling ATM cards and e-buying, e-shopping and e-marketing reach to the best stage of their success.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.0     BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Today’s consumers have never had so much choice and control; they are hyper-connected, hyper-mobile and hold the power when it comes to how, when and where they choose to consume content, products and services. Consumers now research, review and consume anywhere and everywhere – at lightning speed. Businesses all over the world are now looking to new technologies to meet their unique business requirements and position themselves to take advantage of global changes in business activities. Businesses both large and small need information to succeed in today’s rapid changing environment, they need to be able to process data and use information effectively when conducting their day-to-day operations.

The growth of the internet has greatly influenced consumer buying behaviour in most part of the world. Kim (2004) opines that the internet is a dynamic system that provides opportunities for enterprises to build and apply marketing strategies, thus enterprises must be inform, learn and interact with what its consumer w ants and one of the ways of achieving this is via the electronic marketing. The e-marketing has drastically changed the consumer behavior and

marketing method. As e-marketing increasing drastically we have different kinds of e-marketing webs available online like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Linked in, Blogger, Twitter, YouTube, MSN, Myspace, AOL, e-bay etc. Konga, Jumia, Ali BaBa, Amazon.

Electronic marketing or E-marketing can be defined as any marketing activity like buying, selling, advertisement, promotion, distribution, customers value and all other kind of marketing activities done with the help of using online technology to transfer goods from seller to buyer online (Strauss and Frost, 2001). Consumer buying behavior is the mental, emotional, physical activities which people perform when choosing, purchasing, using and spending products and services with aim of fulfilling their needs and desires (Marcel, 2008). This implies that consumer buying behaviour is the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products. e-marketing is not just helpful for the marketers but consumers as well; through e-marketing consumer research detail about product or services after watch advertisement which has been done online at the same time, that’s why it is consider less time consuming market, and more variety of people available, their comparison between different companies become easy because you can see different marketing webs at a same time regarding same products. Options are widely open (Ndisika, 2015).

Through scientific research it is also be found that nowadays people are relaying on e-marketing mostly (Ali, 2015 and Chen, 2011). Living in this century, everyone is running to achieve their target and goal, nobody have time to survey the market physically, so with the help of e-marketing, time and cost both maintain equally (Ali, 2015). The reason behind online shopping increment is that most consumers is highly depending on technologies, they do not survey physically in the market, they don’t read newspaper any more, the trend of watching TV advertisement is declining, because they prefer internet mostly to search for news, movies, dramas, etc rather than the TV, Radio, Novels, and other stuffs, so that’s the reason companies preferring online marketing of their product or services advertisement (Chen, 2011).

As e-marketing has no time limit, 24/7 availability, safety of your money as well, increases the use of ATM cards and other online shopping cards attract customers effectively and efficiently; prospective consumers can easily search the product information online, no sales tax for company as everything done online. Regardless of the type of e-marketing a company chooses to market their goods, they are making themselves more visible and accessible by putting themselves out there, the best part is that no matter where they are located, prospective consumers can access their products and transact business whenever they choose to.

It is against this background that this study this examines the effect of electronic marketing on consumers buying behaviour in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.

1.1     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

Electronic marketing has changed and is still changing the way business is conducted around the world. The commercialization of the Internet has driven online marketing to become one of the most promising channels for inter-organizational business processes. Electronic marketing evolved in various means of relationship within the business processes.

In Nigeria today, many consumers are turning to the internet in the marketing and purchasing of goods and even services. However, many more consumers are not reaping the reward of e-marketing for many reasons; there is the problem of cybercrime, availability of internet coverage, epileptic power supply, lack of awareness. The major problem statement therefore is: why do consumers make purchase online and what factor influence consumer purchases online

Therefore the above mention problems motivated the researchers to carry a research work on the effect of electronic marketing on consumers buying behaviour in in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja..

1.2     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to examine the effect e-marketing on consumer buying behavior in in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.

The study sought to achieve the following specific objectives:

1. Find out the effect of social media on consumer buying behavior in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.
2. Examine the effect of website on consumer buying behavior in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.
3. Ascertain the effect of online blog on consumers buying behavior in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.

1.3     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions guided the study

1. What is the effect of social media on consumer buying behaviour in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja?
2. What is the effect of website on consumer buying behaviour in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja?
3. What is the effect of online blog on consumer buying behaviour Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja?

1.4     STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS

H₀:    Electronic marketing has no significant effect on consumer buying behaviour in in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja..

H₁:    Electronic marketing has effect on consumer buying behaviour in in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The findings of this study will be beneficial to organizations as well as firms especially on the need to focus generally on online/internet marketing, individual, group/team and organizational creativity. Also, the findings of this study will serve as a medium of awareness and enlightenment on the many environmental trends affecting organizations in recent years and proffer possible panacea to such problems as they rear heads. Not only this, but also, its findings will serve as platform mostly for professional manager, chief executives and all personnel involved in the staff training, administration and management on how to drive their staff for maximum human creativity and innovation. By so doing, several organizations would be better equipped to develop a repertoire of techniques (management control systems) to improving performances of average employees and at the same time improving the efficiency in management by enforcing cooperation of workers and standardization of work methods especially in creative organizations.

In conclusion, the outcome of this study will provide a contribution to the management of national culture as regards cultural individualism, collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, multiple cultural dimensions as may affect an individual employee’s preferences for, and reaction to management control systems in interactive ways; and it will be a systematic knowledge base for researchers. 

1.6     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study will be limited to in Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja.

The study adopts the dimensions of electronic marketing (Social media, websites, and online blogs). Primary data will be the source of data used in the study. The responses obtained via the primary source (questionnaire) will be analyzed in simple percentage and presented in tables. Chi-square will be used in testing the hypotheses generated for the study; the decision rule adopted for the study is that the null hypothesis will be accepted or rejected based on the critical value and tabulated value- if the calculated value is greater than the tabulated value, the researcher will reject the null hypothesis (at a specified level of significance and a determined degree of freedom) otherwise it will be accepted.

1.7     LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The researcher encountered some limitations in the course of carrying out the study; these include;

1. Time: The researcher had time constraints in course of the work, because the research was undertaken at the same time as when the course work was going on.
2. Finance: The high cost of transportation encountered and also the high cost of acquiring research material and also in preparation of the report.

1.8     OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

E-marketing: This is the marketing and selling of goods and services using the internet as the sales and distribution medium.

Consumer buying behaviour: This is the sum total of a consumer’s attitudes, preferences, intentions, and decisions regarding the consumer’s behavior in the marketplace when purchasing a product or service.

Social media: Social media are computer-mediated technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks.

Websites: A website is a collection of related web pages, including multimedia content, typically identified with a common domain name, and published on at least one web server. 

Blog:A blog is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries.

A Study of the Effect of Advertising On Consumer Buying Habits for Telecommunication Services in Abuja Metropolis

A Study of the Effect of Advertising On Consumer Buying Habits for Telecommunication Services in Abuja Metropolis

 (A Case Study Of Airtel Nigeria Plc. Abuja)

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The impact of mass communication is felt all over the globe through advertising, newspaper, internet, music, films, videos, magazine, movies and billboards. Among these media, advertising is the one that has lasting impact on the viewer’s mind, since its exposure is much broader (Bodafithan (2000)). Advertising is the main source of communication tool between the producer and the consumer. Advertising is a subset of promotion mix and is one of the 4ps in the marketing mix which comprise product, price, place and promotion. Advertising is a promotion strategy which serves as a major tool in creating product awareness in the mind of the consumer to take purchasing decision.Boston. McGraw-Hi, Dunn, S. W., &Barben, A. (1987).Advertising, sales promotion and public relations are mass communications tools used by marketers. Advertising through mass media influences audience, but television has mass reach and is the strongest medium of advertising.

A company can enhance the brand of their product by investing in promotional activities in order to compete in a consumer market that is dominated through advertising (Arnold, E.J., & Thompson, C.G. (2005). The primary aim of advertiser is to reach consumers and influence their awareness, attitude and buying behavior. Their major preoccupation is to keep individuals interest in their product through spending on advertising. They also need to understand what influence customers behavior. Advertising has the potential to contribute to brand choice of consumers (Howart .J. 2002). It impacts on consumer behavior. Brand memories consist of those associations that are related to brand name in consumer’s mind. These brand cognition influence consideration, evaluation and final purchase (Romaniuk& Sharp,2003). Consumer behavior should be analyzed for effective advertising, to know why consumers behave in particular ways under certain circumstances. And also to know the factors that influence consumer behavior, especially the economic, social and psychological aspects (Ayanwale, Alimi&Ayabinpe, 2005).

Advertising also creates advertisement which carry emotional bond with consumers. Positive emotional appeals also provide a strong brand cue and stimulate category based processing. With successful categorization, the effect and beliefs associated with this category in memory are translated to the objective itself. Consumers try to categorize the brand association with the existing memory, when thousands of products are faced by them and might reposition memories to a brand image and perception towards new products. In this way, they can categorize latest information in particular brand and shore accordingly in their memory. Some organizations do not attach importance in advertising their products and these have adverse effect on their output in terms of sales of product. Others use different advertising media like television, internet (face book; email) newspaper, billboard, magazine etc. to convey their product message to their target audience. Companies spend major part of their budget on advertising strategies to promote their products/services. These advertisement strategies influence consumer buying behavior(Howart .J. (2002).

1.1     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Organizations face particularly tough hurdles when it comes to advertising and consumer buying behavior in their business, especially in the beginning. Successful advertising is crucial to the success of any business. As with many organizations, however, you may face budget challenges that tempt you to curtail advertising. When it is most needed without proper preparations, appropriate advices and extensive researches you will run into other problems with advertising as well that create obstacles that could be difficult to overcome. Advertising takes many forms ranging from word of mouth referrals to traditional prints, ads in newspapers to online marketing techniques. Advertising should be focused on bringing new customers, encouraging repeat business and promoting a positive image of the company.

1.2     OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study attempts to determine the impact of advertising on consumer buying behavior. The objectives of the study are to:

1. Identify the effect of emotional response on consumers buying behavior.

ii. Ascertain the effect of environmental response towards brand on consumer buying behavior.

iii.   Determine the effect of Brand awareness on consumer buying behavior.

iv. Identify the effect of sensory stimulated advertising on consumer buying behavior.

1.3     STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were formulated to guide this study

Ho: Emotional response does not positively affect consumer buying behavior.

Hi: Emotional response towards brand does positively affect consumer buying behavior.

1.4     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study would be of great benefit to the following stakeholders

Companies/Organizations: The study would help organizations to find possible measures/strategies to advertise their products and services. It would be of great interest and valuable to marketing managers and help them to sell their products/services and make reasonable profits to the company/organization Consumers: It will create brand awareness to motivate them emotionally to buy the product.

1.5     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study examined the impact of product advertising on consumer buying behaviours. The scope of this study would be limited to Airtel Nigeria Plc. This research work studied advertising only with respect to consumer behavior. This study will help to give recommendations on how Advertising and sales promotion, has effect on consumer buying and to see how it helps company to increase company sales and influence consumer buying habits.

1.6     LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

In the course of carrying out this research work, certain factors militated against the smooth operation of the work. The exercise was greatly limited due to some factors. Some of the factors include: 
–       Lack of funds 
–       Time constraints 
–       Inadequate research materials to collect data such as textbooks, journals, magazines 

1.8     OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS

The following terms are defined below for clear understanding of the topic in this project.

1. ADVERTISING: It is the non-personal selling of goods and services through the mass media which includes newspaper, magazines, radio and television, postal and are fully paid for by an individual.
2. INFLUENCE: Power to produce and effect action of natural forces.
3. CONSUMER: Person who bring goods and services.
4. BEHAVOUR: Way of treating manner or way of acting.
5. MEDIA: Channel through which the message or information passes from the producer to the final consumer e.g. Television, newspaper, magazine etc.
6. ADVERTISEMENT: Is the person or organization that usually initiates the advertising process or the sponsors of the advert.
7. ADVERTISING AGENCY: IS an independent company that provides special advertising services. The advertising agency plans and  executes entire advertising campaign.

 AUDIENCE: The target audiences are the target customers or buyers of the organization producing the products.