Influence of NTA Enugu Television Advertisement on the Choice of Hair Relaxer Among Female Undergraduates

Influence of NTA Enugu Television Advertisement on the Choice of Hair Relaxer Among Female Undergraduates (A Study of Undergraduates in Caritas University)

Abstract

“Influence of Television Advertisement on the Choice of Hair Relaxer among Female Undergraduates” aims to determine the influence of television advertisements on ladies’ choice of hair relaxer products. The method of the study is the survey method, and the instrument used for data collection is the questionnaire and personal interview. The population of the study is 2,280, out of which 150 were purposively selected and sampled. Data collected was analyzed in tables and simple percentages. The researcher recommended that marketers understand that what consumers want in a product is satisfaction. The study enlightened female undergraduates on hair relaxer products that suit their hair texture. Therefore manufacturers are encouraged to produce quality hair relaxer products bearing in mind that no consumer can go a second time for a product that fails to satisfy her. While advertising can help sell a product, it can do nothing to help a sub-standard one.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Advertising has come a long way, expanding its cost in principles and practice. It is gaining more recognition, increasing its application and usage. Since the advent of technology and within the different forms of information communication technology, it has become a toast in the life of manufacturers, products and services, consumers, advertising agencies, and the media. In short, advertising means a lot to different people. It has given many people something to think about. In one way, it could be what the people do with advertising, and in another, what advertising does with the people and for the people. The people here are the manufacturers or advertisers who create awareness for their goods and services through advertising. Another set of people is the public, the consumers, who desperately need certain goods and services. The advertising agencies are not left out. They are willing to create the enabling ground for the advertisers for their products and services and the target audience through a medium or media of communication. Advertising helps advertising agencies to showcase their creativity. The media cannot do without advertising. Apart from the revenue they get from placing such advertisements, it attracts more viewership, readership, or fellowship of the channel. And, of course, the teachers and students of advertising are part of this component. The teachers are busy expanding the scope and application of advertising, adjusting the old form to adapt to the new technologies; the students are left with the issue of coping, understanding and assimilation, and later application.

Nevertheless, Bovee and Arens (1992:309), say advertising is a “non-personal communication of information, usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature, about products, services, or ideas by identified sponsors through various media.” Along the line, the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) in Ozoh (1998:1) posits “advertising as a form of communication through media about products, services, or ideas, paid for by an identified sponsor.”

Advertising as a business competitive strategy is aimed at creating awareness of the existence of a product through the communication media. Television advertising has an effect on buyers and potential buyers.

Television advertising has earned an excellent, consistent track record of promoting products and services. Television advertising has many advantages for local, regional, and national businesses. In urban areas like Enugu, television provides the most spectacular way an advertiser can reach the greatest number of people at a time as they possess TV sets.

Television advertising is an exciting, dynamic, and challenging enterprise. Its often pervasive, fascinating, and materialistic nature makes it an object of criticism and misunderstanding. It is a form of communication through the media about products, services, ideas, personalities, or organizations paid for by an identified sponsor. If advertisements have no effect, companies would not spend so much on them. Advertising helps us to discover much about what appeals to us as consumers and investigate how advertisers manipulate this to their benefit.

According to Rouse and Rouse (2002), building a strong image or brand requires high-impact advertising with high visibility. Television has such characteristics. It is a highly prestigious form of advertising.

Sybil and Obah (1987), say this form of advertising play on the emotions of consumers and exploits their desire with intensive persuasion. Advertising aims at promoting goods and services like a relaxer. Benson Eluwa (2005:3) Advertising does more than sell products. It makes mass marketing possible by making prospective customers aware of specific goods and services’ availability and unique qualities. It shapes our attitude, and our attitudes shape our behavior, Ahunanya (2004:70).

According to Benson Eluwa (2005:44), advertising does not stop at the economy but also influences the youths greatly through sensitization, social interaction, and modification, for example, Caritas students. Advertising has influenced female undergraduates by making them be materialistic; it affects their value system and makes them think that life is just the acquisition of more things. Advertising creates opportunities and changes undergraduates’ attitudes by making them change products, not minding the effect of those products, shaping students’ tastes and habits.

A researcher, Alvan (2004), in his write-up, said that “Advertisements like our age are hedonistic image management, and fashion driven, they glorify the individual, idealize, consumption as the route to personal fulfillment and affirm technological progress as the motive force of destiny” there must be various brands of hair relaxer in the shops, market stall and in hawkers barrows, the ability for each to sell depends on the brand’s exposure to and persuasive power of advertising messages on the buyer as well as the quality of such brand and finally the availability of the brand.

Some brands have long established their names while others are still coming into the market, for example, Ozone, Dallas, Ebony, and La-sheen cream relaxer. This is why advertising hair relaxers seem geared towards informing prospective buyers about their arrival and persuading them on efficiency and efficacy.

Television seems to be the best media used to advertise these products. Television has this partial monopoly, perhaps because of its power to positive music in the advertisement and the color. Music can heighten the emotional or dramatic impact of the commercial. The idea of positioning music as a unique selling point is to reinforce the recognition of advertisement. Advertising is a small aspect of the marketing mix one cannot ignore.

Most people in advertising try to ask whether advertisements really work by influencing consumers’ choices of products. Although researchers and data on advertising have been added over the years, the evidence of its success has not been conclusive. The effectiveness of advertising and how it generates sales does not mean that progress has not been made on the product.

Researchers have come up with principles that test the relationship between advertising exposure and its effectiveness. These principles in advertising, which are based on product selection by consumers, were evaluated in this research. Hopefully, this will provide insight into whether advertisement influences consumers‟ preference for competitive products. There are a whole lot of ideas on what advertising is and works. It can be seen as a promotional instrument that persistently creates awareness of goods and services with the objective of persuading this target audience to patronize or take action.

1.2 Statement of Problem

The problem of this study is to investigate the influence of television advertising on the choice of hair relaxers among female undergraduates at Caritas University.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The following are the objectives of the study:

1. To find out if television advertisement has an influence on female undergraduates’ choice of products.
2. To find out if ladies go for what they see advertised on television.
3. To know if female undergraduates make the choice of hair relaxer based on their texture.
4. To find out whether female undergraduates choose hair relaxers based on the quality of the brand.

1.4 Research Questions

The following research questions are found relevant to the study

1. How does television advertisement influence female undergraduates on the choice of hair relaxer?
2. To what extent do female undergraduates make choices of hair relaxers based on what they see advertised on television?
3. Do you think the female undergraduate‟s choice of hair relaxer is based on their hair texture?
4. How do female undergraduates choose their hair relaxer quality of brand?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

The following hypothesis was formulated for the study

H1. Female undergraduates‟s make choices of hair relaxers based on what they see and hear advertised on television.

H2. Female undergraduates‟s choice of hair relaxer is based on their hair texture.

1.6 Significance of the Study

This study is relevant in equipping manufacturers with product design and advertisers on the most appropriate selection of channels to disseminate information about product consumption.

It will enlighten female undergraduates more on relaxer products that suit their hair texture and also be an important guide to future students who undertakes research on similar studies.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study is centered on female undergraduates, especially Caritas University female students who relax and watch NTA Enugu television advertisements on hair relaxers.

1.8 Assumptions of the Study

The researcher assumes that:

1. The respondents watch television advertisements for hair relaxers.
2. Television advertisements should be informative.
3. Television advertisements influence female students on the choice of hair relaxer.
4. The quality of the advertisement message determines the choice of brand.

1.9 Operational definition of significant terms

In these research works, the variables used were operationally defined, and the meaning reflects how the researcher wants the variables to be understood in the context of the work.

1. Advertising: A group of activities aimed at disseminating information many paid on personal formation concerning an idea, product, or service (both new brand and old products) to compel action per the intent of an identified sponsor.
2. Television: This electronic device has visual and audio effects with the aid of electromagnetic waves.
3. Female Undergraduates: Young ladies who are still undergoing the process of higher education or learning.
4. Hair Relaxer: A cream that makes the hair easier to straighten and manage.
5. Choice: Act of choosing out of multiple items or brands of products.

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