Assessment of Twitter Ban on Brand Awareness in Nigeria (a Case Study of Rite Food Limited, Lagos State )
Chapter One
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study;
- To determine the extent to which the Twitter ban affected the brand awareness of Rite Foods Limited.
- To ascertain the effects of the Twitter ban on the sales of products of Rite Foods Limited.
- To investigate the means through which Rite Foods Limited continued to create brand awareness after the ban.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
Our focus in this chapter is to critically examine relevant literature that would assist in explaining the research problem and furthermore recognize the efforts of scholars who had previously contributed immensely to similar research. The chapter intends to deepen the understanding of the study and close the perceived gaps.
Precisely, the chapter will be considered in three sub-headings:
- Conceptual Framework
- Theoretical Framework, and
- Empirical Review
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Evolution of Social Media (Twitter)
Social media have evolved through Web 2.0, a term coined to describe a new wave of Internet innovation that enables users to publish and exchange content online Kaplan and Haenlein (cited in Eun 2011:6). Social media encompass a wide range of electronic forums, including blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter), social networking sites (e.g., Facebook), creative work-sharing sites (e.g., YouTube), business networking sites (e.g., LinkedIn), collaborative websites (e.g., Wikipedia), and virtual worlds (e.g., Second Life). Among these social media, social networks and microblogs are the most popular, accounting for 22.7% of all time spent online in the United States ACNielsen (cited in Eun 2011: 6). According to Dominick (2009:283) Web 2.0 is the idea of a second generation Internet that is highly participatory, allowing users to improve it as they use it. Social media contents are primarily written and published by their users and not owners or employees of the site. For instance, most adverts, videos and pictures on Facebook and Twitter are uploaded by visitors of the sites. Jenkins et. al (cited in Stagno: 2) observe that Web 2.0 has been growing tremendously as it facilitates the production and dissemination of information, allows for the involvements in participatory culture to share individual expressions or creations and bring people with similar interests and goals to connect with each other on blogs, social networking sites and others. Few years ago, websites were quite static and passive. There was no much interaction going on as they were mostly corporate websites. The only way an individual could participate online was to send an email or form to the owners or web master of the website and hope that they would get back to him. This type of arrangement was called Web 1.0, referred to as “first generation Web where users generally consumed content. The audience went to web pages and looked at content provided by the website owner” Dominick (2009:283). But today, users have become producers which mean that they simultaneously consume and produce information (Bruns, cited in Stagno 2010:1). Igbinidu (2011:26) explains that the first exploitation of the potential of the social media especially to spread a candidates message, gain support and get the public engaged was through the 2008 presidential campaign by the then Senator Barack Obama who eventually became American president. The Obama campaign reached five million people on 15 different social media platforms. As at November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.3 million Facebook supporters; 115,000 Twitter followers and 50 million viewers of his YouTube videos. Facebook is a social network for connecting people with those around themfriends, family, coworkers, or simply others with similar interests. Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 alongside his roommates and fellow computer science classmates Eduardo Saverin, Austin Maskovitz and Chris Hughes at Harvard University in the U.S (Locke cited in Nnaane 2011:15). Initially, Facebook membership was restricted to Harvard students but later extended to other colleges in Boston and Stanford University all in the U.S. “Since 2006, Facebook has expanded beyond Harvard to other schools, corporations, businesses and any user across the world” (Dunay & Krueger 2010:27).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
AREA OF STUDY
Rite Foods Limited launched as a company in December 2007 as a subsidiary of the Ess-Ay Holdings Limited. It was in the mid-2000s, following the digital evolution in photography that the Group decided to diversify into the FMCG sector, which led to the birth of Rite Foods Limited.
Rite Foods Limited is the manufacturer of Bigi Drinks, Rite and Bigi Sausages and Fearless Energy Drinks. Sulaiman Adebola Adegunwa OFR, is a Nigerian businessman, philanthropist, and former chairman of Sterling Bank Plc. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Essay Holdings Limited; Parent Company of Rite Foods Limited. Bigi is owned by Rite Foods, a Nigerian family-owned conglomerate. The company also produces a packaged sausage roll product also branded Bigi, itself the number 2 in the sausage roll market.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried out to assess Of Twitter Ban On Brand Awareness In Nigeria using Rite Food Limited, Lagos State as a case study. The staff of Rite Food Limited, Lagos state form the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only one hundred and twenty (120) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 120 was validated for the analysis.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
SUMMARY
In this study, our focus was on the assessment Of Twitter Ban On Brand Awareness In Nigeria using Rite Food Limited, Lagos State as a case study. The study specifically was aimed at determining the extent to which the Twitter ban affected the brand awareness of Rite Foods Limited, to ascertain the effects of the Twitter ban on the sales of products of Rite Foods Limited, and to investigate the means through which Rite Foods Limited continued to create brand awareness after the ban.
The study adopted the survey research design and conveniently enrolled participants in the study. A total of 120 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent are drawn from the staff of Rite Food Limited, Lagos State.
CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of this study, the following conclusions were made:
- Twitter ban has affected the brand awareness of Rite Foods Limitedto a very high extent.
- The effects of the Twitter ban on the sales of products of Rite Foods Limitedincludes but not limited to:
- It stopped the online advertisement of the company product via twitter platform.
- It reduced the volume of sales of the company
- It limited customers access to the company promotions and other awareness
- It reduced the profit margin of the company
- Rite Foods Limited adopted the following strategies in order to continuecreation of brand awareness:
- Use of other social media platform such as Instagram and Facebook
- Awareness through LinkedIn platform
- Use of social media freelancers
- Use of manure advertisement through the use of bill boards and fliers
- Use of promotions to attract more sales
- Through mass media advert such as radio and television
RECOMMENDATION
Based on the responses obtained, the researcher proffers the following recommendations:
- The federal government of Nigeria should endeavour to go back to their drawing board and make necessary amendment on the ban on Twitter usage in Nigeria.
- The federal government of Nigeria should recognise that the ban on Twitter is affecting different spheres of the economy. They should adhere to the terms of and rules of ECOWAS and revoke the ban since the ban is a bridge of the fundamental rights of the citizens.
- Rite Food Limited should devise other means to create awareness of their product to the public via other social media platforms and as well utilize manure method.
- Product quality and customer satisfaction is another means of creating awareness whereby, the customers of the brand becomes the first ambassadors of the product to the public. Therefore, Rite Food Limited should endeavour to maintain good quality of their product.
REFERENCE
- Arens, W. F., Weigold, M., & Christian, A. (2011). Contemporany advertising and integrated marketing communications (13thed.). New York: McGrawHill/Irwin.
- Barnes, N. G., & Mattson, E. (2009). Social media in the 2009 Inc. 500: new tools & New Trends. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from center for marketing research, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/socialmedia2009.pdf
- Barnes, N. G., & Mattson, E. (2009). Social media in the 2009 Inc. 500: new tools & new trends. Retrieved February 2, 2010, from center for marketing research, University of MassachusettsDartmouth:http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch/social media2009.pdf.
- Battelle, J. (2009). Comparing Twitter’s growth to Facebook and Google. Retrieved from http://www. businessinsider.com/comparing-twitters-growth-to- facebook-and-google-2009-3
- Belch, G.E & Belch, M.A. (2009). Advertising and promotions: An integrated marketing communications perspective (8th ed.) New York : Mc Graw- Hill Irwin.
- Beth, H (2010). Social media versus classical marketing. Retrieved October 4, 2010 from http://ww the hart of marketing.com/2010/3/social media –vs- classicalmarketing HTML (Blog post).
- Beth, H. (2010). Social media versus classical marketing. Retrieved October 4, 2010 from http://ww the hart of marketing.com/2010/3/social media –vs- classicalmarketing HTML (Blog post).
