The Role of the Social Media as a Platform for Marketing and Advertising and Attitudes of Students Towards Online Goods and Services
Chapter One
General Objective
The general objective of this study was to assess the effect of Social media advertising on the attitudes of students towards online goods and services of federal polytechnic, Bida, Niger state.
Specific Objectives
- To identify the relationship between Facebook advertisement and the consumer buying behaviour of students in federal polytechnic, Bida.
- To identify the relationship between Instagram advertisement and the attitudes of students towards online goods and services of students in federal polytechnic, Bida.
- To identify the relationship between internet advertisement and the attitudes of students towards online goods and services of students in federal polytechnic, Bida.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual review
Advertising
According to Arens (2005), advertising is a form of communication intended to convince an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, information or services. Moreover, Bulla and Scott (1994) define advertising as a form of communication which is used to help in selling products and services. Typically, it communicates a message including the name of the product or service and how that product or service could potentially benefit the consumer. Advertising does typically attempt to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service.
Purchasing Process
The purchasing process is a set of procedures used to identify products for purchase, verify quality and compliance of products and vendors, carry out
purchasing transactions, and verify that operations associated with purchasing have been executed appropriately. Arens (2005) state that different organizations have buying processes of varying complexity, depending on the industry in which they work and the nature of the products being purchased.
Attitudes of students towards online goods and services
Moskal and Leydens (2000) define attitudes of students towards online goods and services as the sum total of a consumer’s attitudes, preferences, intentions and decisions regarding the consumer’s behaviour in the marketplace when purchasing a product or service. The study of consumer behaviour draws upon social science disciplines of anthropology, psychology, sociology and economics. The purchases of a food commodity such as a sack of flour or sugar products provide example of attitudes of students towards online goods and services (Ibid).
Theoretical Perspectives
This section provides theoretical perspectives related to this study. They are presented in the context of general theoretical context, methods of advertisement and the impact of advertisement with respect to the consumer.
General Theoretical Context
General theoretical views are texts of scholarly materials, which include the current knowledge. Haug’s (1986) critique of Commodity Aesthetics argues that “commodity aesthetics” shape the values, perceptions, and consumer behaviour of individuals in the contemporary capitalist societies so as to integrate them into the lifestyles of consumer capitalism. The concept of commodity aesthetics emerges within “the problem of realization” (i.e. capital accumulation, the realization of surplus value) and the tension between “use-value” and “exchange-value.” The concept describes the ways that aesthetics are integrated into the production, distribution and marketing of commodities. More specifically, commodity aesthetics refers to “a beauty developed in the service of the realization of exchange value, whereby commodities are designed to stimulate in the onlooker the desire to possess and the impulse to buy” (Haug, 1986:54). In other words, commodity aesthetics uses aesthetics to sell products and consumer capital in the form of advertising, packaging, marketing, and display. Much like Boorstin, Debord and Baudrillard, Haug (Ibid) emphasizes the importance of image and appearance in contemporary society, and reveals how they are connected to the sales effort and to the capitalist political economy.
In the early 20th century, psychologists Walter D. Scott and John B. Watson contributed Applied Psychological theory to the field of advertising. Scott asserted that “Man has been called the reasoning animal but he could with greater truthfulness be called the creature of suggestion. He is reasonable, but he is to a greater extent suggestible” (Benjamin & Baker, p. 119-120). He demonstrated this through his advertising technique of a direct command to the consumer. The former chair at Johns Hopkins University, John B. Watson was a highly recognized psychologist in the 1920s. After leaving the field of academia he turned his attention towards advertising where he implemented the concepts of behaviourism into advertising. This focused on appealing to the basic emotions of the consumer: love, hate, and fear. This type of advertising proved to be extremely effective as it suited the changing social context which led to heavy influence of future advertising strategy and cemented the place of psychology in advertising.
CHARTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design is used to structure the research, to show all the major parts of the research project (Kothari, 2006). Kothari defines “research design as the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedures” (p.31).
Descriptive design was selected because it has the advantage of producing good amount of responses from a wide range of people. This design provides a meaningful and accurate picture of events and seeks to explain people’s perception and behaviour on the basis of the data collected. The advantage with this design is that it helps to find views as they are in their natural setting (Ibid).
Population of the Study
Best and Khan (1998:23) define “population as any group of individuals who has one or more characteristics in common that are of interest to the researcher”. In this study, the target population was mainly students of Federal polytechnic, Bida, this study selected only little number of students.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS
Demographic Profile of the Respondents
The demographic characteristic of the participants sought in the study involved aged and sex the respondents.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of findings
The study was conducted in Niger state, Nigeria. The objective of the study was to assess the effect of Social media advertising on the attitudes of students towards online goods and services of federal polytechnic, Bida. The study involved 150 students, The study employed descriptive design. It was selected because it has the advantage of producing good amount of responses from a wide range of people. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected.
In this study, randomly sampling and focusing group sampling were used by picking only the sample that brought the best information that satisfied the intention of the study. Purposive sampling technique was used in choosing the sources of data. On the other hand the study employed judgment sampling. Purposive sampling method was used to get respondents.
Both primary data and secondary data were collected. Primary data were collected through focus group discussion, observation, interview and questionnaire. On the other hand, secondary data were collected through documentary review.
Conclusion
From the findings of the study it may be concluded most of customers are influenced by advertisements on Instagram followed by Facebook then and finally online media. Generally, it was observed that most of the consumers are affected by advertisement in the buying behaviour. Most of them they buy products which are mostly advert and they make them to be loyal. Instagram advertisement has more impact on attitudes of students towards online goods and services more than other media. Statistical analysis of consumer attitude shows that among three dimensions (loyalty, previous buying experience and word of mouth) are significant factors which effect attitudes of students towards online goods and services. Advertisers had their largest profits from knowledge of previous purchases of consumer and also the loyalty of consumer to any product plays another important role in leading consumer attitude to purchase of that product as also noted by Mohammed and Alkubise (2012).
On the other hand, it was observed that traditional media (Facebook and Instagram) adverts are more trusted than new media advert. Reason of less significant impact of online ad on consumer purchase behaviour is the lack of trust and lack of industries involvement in online media. On the other case, online media has started to be familiar and beginning to be trusted by people in the society in the current time of 21st century. There are hundreds of advertising agencies but only few of them actively manage and control online media. Moreover, it was observed that advert has influence in attitudes of students towards online goods and services compared to marketing communications. People want to purchase products they have already seen or through experience. Word of mouth and other communication are also powerful of convincing consumer in buying behaviour. Moreover, old people are not easy to try new products compared to youth.
Recommendations
From the findings of the study, a number of recommendations are provided.
The study recommends that newspaper media should continue to be used in advertisement because still people believe and trust it. Advertisers should consider creativity when designing print advertisements.
The Facebook is among the media which has big influence to audience due to its strength such as to be flexible, universal and cheap. Therefore, recommends that advertisers should design Facebook adverts which are easy to be understood by customers.
Instagram has more power to influence more than other media. Advert which is displayed in Instagram can be remembered easily and fast because people see and hear the advert. The study recommends that advertisers should use Instagram adverts well and the message should be supported well by visual so as to gain new customers, create brand loyalty and persuade well.
Online media is very new to many people but it is fast, easy, cheap and global. It has no gate keepers which make it to be in some way not to be trusted as an old media. The study recommends that online media should be used as much as possible because it has no geographical boundaries. It has second chance and easy to assess. Online media can reach large number of customers and can help people to purchase products online fast and avoiding queuing. Advertiser should invest well enough in online media.
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