CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the study

Advertising is seen as a potent vehicle for achieving acceptance of desirable and useful Concepts or ideas where the profit motive is minimal or missing altogether. Okorie (2009) reasoned that advertising has become an integral part of our social and economic system; it is indeed a powerful communication tool of business to most firms and organizations for them to be able to reach their target market across the globe. In other words, advertising can be seen as a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideals, or services.

Advertisement is the main source of communication tool between the producer and the consumer. Advertisement is the subset of promotional mix and is one of the most important 4ps in the marketing mix which includes product, price, place and promotion. Advertising is part of the promotion strategy which help in creating product awareness in the market that eventually influences the consumer purchase decision. Advertisement, sales promotion and public relation are mass communication tool undertaken by market.

The emergence of Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2001 in Cameroon has revolutionized the telecommunication sector in the Cameroon society.  Today, the telecommunication industry in Bamenda has become a very competitive market with various service providers like Camtel, Nexttel and MTN-cm; thus, there is a need for the use of advertising to create awareness and to promote the sales of that particular product or service.

There are several ad messages in the print media, tevevion,radio, but the issue is “do all these advert influence the consumers purchase decisions?” If advertisement does not create any positive change in consumers’ purchase decisions, all the resources such as mission, money, message, media, and measurements will become ineffective.  Therefore, it is important to find out to what extent advertisement influences a consumer in purchasing a products and services in the telecommunication industry.

With the well-known MTN in Bamenda, the questions could be asked whether advertising influenced the patronage of MTN services in Bamenda, or whether advertising significantly contributed to the brand equity of MTN. Some marketing scholars have argued that advertising has the power to influence potential buyers to patronize or purchase a product while some are of the opinion that advertising is not strong enough to influence potential buyers to patronize a product. Thus, this could be a research concern for scholars and social scientists, whether advertising could be seen as a tool of marketing to promote consumer purchase decisions. This study is out to evaluate the effect of advertising [ tv advert, radio advert, internet advert etc] on consumer purchase decision using MTN as an example industry.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Marketers use Advertisement as a tool to attract substantially new customers and to retain the existing customers.  The role of advertisement; to increase sales revenue and profits of the local firms and increase the demand for goods, has been falling apart (Yousefi, 2007). Mbiti, (2015), studied the effectiveness of advertising on consumer purchase decision of mtn product In Bamenda and found that advertising has significant relationship with purchase decision and thus it is influential to aspects of consumer purchase decision. Moreover, less research has looked into the influence of advertising on MTN product purchase decision in Bamenda.

Most increase in product sales, especially telecommunication services have been attributed to other factors like taste and preference, long term use of a services and user’s unwillingness to switch from one service provider to another (Binde, 2014). This has raised numerous questions as to why MTN firms still do advertise their services.  In an ideal situation MTN companies should target the consumer through advertising because of the purchase potential presented by the number of people with access.  It is therefore not really clear whether advertising influence consumer to purchase or not to purchase mtn services.  This study addressed the development of regional information on advertising that can adequately be applied to the Bamenda MTN market, and in this case, to provide an answer to the question: What is the effects of advertising mtn product on consumer purchase decision?

1.3. Objectives

1.3.1. The general objective is to examine the effects of advertising techniques on consumer purchase decision of MTN product in Bamenda

1.3.2.  Specifically, To find out whether social media advertisement has an effect on consumer purchase decision MTN product.

1.3.3. To find out how Broadcast advertisement can influence consumer purchase decision of MTN

Product.

1.3.4. Examine the relationship between print advertisement and consumer ‘s preference for MTN service among competing brands.

1.4 Research questions

1.4.1. What are the effects of advertising techniques on consumer purchase decision of MTN product in Bamenda?

1.4.2. Specifically, What is the impact of social media advertisement on consumer purchase decision of MTN product in Bamenda?

1.4.3. How does Broadcast advertisement influence consumer purchase decision of MTN products in Bamenda?

1.4.4. What is the relationship between print advertisement and consumer’s preference for MTN service among competing brands?