IMPACT OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING IN PROMOTING THE SALES OF MTN PRODUCTS IN ENUGU METROPOLIS

IMPACT OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING IN PROMOTING THE SALES OF MTN PRODUCTS IN ENUGU METROPOLIS

Abstract

This project examines the Impact of television advertising in promoting the sales of MTN products in Enugu metropolis. Survey research method was used for the study and purposive sampling technique was used to draw a sample size of 200 from residents in Enugu metropolis. Research findings showed that MTN adverts on television have greatly impacted in promoting sales of MTN products in Enugu metropolis and a great number of the residents in Enugu metropolis strongly believe in MTN advert messages. In conclusion, television advertising has indeed connected MTN to Nigerians especially Enugu residents, by helping to create the initial awareness of their services, thereby promoting the demand and purchase of the company‟s product. Based on these findings, the study recommended that MTN-NG advertising unit should always conduct a research to help them reduce risk to a manageable proportion. To this end, the researcher recommended MTN-NG should in testify efforts in nourishing good customer‟s relationship and carry out research from time to time to find out new desires of their customers and ways to meet up in order to reduce risk to a manageable proportion. The research suggested that further studies should be carried out on the impact of MTN adverts in Newspapers, Magazines, and on Radio and Internet.

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Much of the early history of advertising in Nigeria largely centers on the activities of the offshoots of multinationals such as Unilever and its advertising agency, LINATS. (Ozoh, 2001,). A more vigorous industry emerged much later with first major impetus being provided by the Nigeria Enterprise Promotion Decree of 1972 otherwise known as Indigenization decree. The decree had provided for advertising as a wholly business with exclusive ownership reserved for Nigeria. Nigerians were suddenly thrust into the position of major drivers in the industry even when they were not ready to assume such post.

But the incipient signs of the emergent activism and vitality that were later to characterize advertising were evident of the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigeria (AAPN). The association struggled relentlessly over the years raising the sensitivity of the public and the government to the problems and interest of the advertising industry. The struggles of the AAPN (which was an Umbrella organization of the advertising agencies in Nigeria) were to pay off in 1988, when government accorded legislative recognition to the profession. In that year, government promulgated a decree now tagged Decree 55 of 1988. The decree established the advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and gave it the following powers and functions;

1. Determining who advertising practitioners are.
2. Determining what standards of knowledge are to be attained by persons seeking to become registered as members of the advertising professions and reviewing these standards from time to time.

Securing in accordance with the provision of the decree, the establishment and maintenance of the register of practitioners and the publication from time to time of the list of the persons.

Regulating and controlling the practice of advertising in all its aspects and ramifications.
Conducting examination in the profession and awarding certificates or diploma to successful candidates when appropriate and for such purpose the council shall prescribe fee to be paid in respect thereof.

With the coming of APCON, advertising assumed full fledged professional status. The profession is usually characterized by a defined body of knowledge and skill which its members must acquire a formal mode of admission and licensing before one could become a member of the profession. Advertising has by virtue of decree 55 acquired these characteristics. Advertising has all over the years assumed a powerful communication force highly visible and one of the most important tools of marketing communication that helps to promote sale of products, services, ideas and images etc. Advertisements are seen in newspapers, magazines, on televisions and internet and are heard on radio.

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON), (1993,p.2), defined advertising as “a form of communication through media about products, services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor.” Bovee and Arens (1992,p.7 ) defined advertising as “ non-personal communication of information, usually about products (goods and services) or ideas by an identified sponsor through various media.” Ulanoff (1977,p.17) also defines advertising as “a tool of marketing for communication of ideas and information or time on the media or uses another communication vehicle to carry its messages and its openly identifies the advertiser and his relationship to sales effort.”

All these explains advertising as a non-personal messages meaning there is no personal interaction between the advertiser and the audience expect in the case personal selling where there is face-to-face presentation and promotion of the product or services by the sales person. It is usually delivered through a media and often viewed as the intrusion. It is also paid for by an identified sponsor. This reflects the fact that the space or time for an advertising messages generally must be brought by a sponsor. Advertising plays a vital role not only to the agencies that practice it but to the manufacturers, media and customers as well. In media for example advertising constitutes a source of income. Newspaper as a rule receive two third of their revenue from adverts.

The survival of radio, television magazines and other channels of mass communication without advertisements is better imagined than real. More so, one best appreciates the beauty, elegance and glamour which advertisement add to the entertainment nature of the media when we imagine the absence of such interline to promote products and services during programmers‟ on radio and television. As for consumers, advertising is educational; people learn about new products and services or improvements in existing ones through advertising. In addition, most advertisements help in producing psychological effects and can help in changing only mental states of audiences and predispose them towards the purchase of the advertised products and services. From the advertising point of view Doghuje (1985,p.19) says “advertising is a marketing tool whose sole aim is to build preferences for advertised brands or services”. Advertising is best at creating initial awareness of a product or services building an image and reinforcing existing impressions consumers have of a brand. It also stimulates demands, strengthens other promotion mix elements, develops brand preference cut costs, and serves as competitive weapons for marketers. It is on this premise that organizations are rapidly learning that an efficient and effective communication with target audience can be the difference between marketing success or failure. Marketers are keenly interested in new ways of effectively communicating with consumers especially through advertising. They are more concerned with developing tactics and strategies of marketing and advertising the products and services to the consumers.

Television advertising originally stemmed from radio advertising. Initial, (Groberman 2011) Radio campaigns were simply utilized as a means of selling radios and assortment of other commonly used products. However, when advertisers begin to realize that this could be an effective means of communicating with the audience throughout the day, they begin to look for new and more innovative ways to gain public attention and aim it towards a given product. More than any other point, 1948 proved to be the year television advertising truly began to take center stage. This worked out for a number of reasons including the country coming of World war II and an assortment of other social factor, coupled with there finally begin enough television sets for a given message to be effectively delivered.

Finally, after alot of researches and even more surveys of what the public sort from their television set, marketers moved in the first advertising angel revolved around making the titles of given shows features the name or certain products or products lines. Among the most prominent examples of this included; Call gate comedy hour and Coke time. Eventually as a result of the increased popularity of television, companies began to realize that a more profitable alternative to the one- product-per-show advertising method that they were employing had to exist. It wasn‟t until NBC executive Sylvester L Weaver did the public first began to get a taste of television advertising as we recognize it today. Weaver and an innovator introduced a new concept of television advertising in which sponsors will purchase blocks of time during a show so as to allow multiple sponsors for any show. It relived agencies of all the cost related to producing a show. By 1969, things became stable and advertising industries grew stronger.

Mobile telephone network( MTN) South Africa was launched in 1994 an it‟s the largest cellular network operators, operating in countries in Africa and the middle-east. As at the end of December 2006, MTN records more than 40million subscribers across its operations. Karel Punnor was the founding father of MTN South Africa. The early days in South Africa entails a great deal of handwork. The company was just focused on rolling out the networks ensuring there was enough capacity for the subscriber growth in their first year of business, voice mail and SMS were later added. According to tele-geographics global communication database (2000), MTN was founded in Nigeria on November 8,2000 as a private company. It secured license to operate digital on August 23, 2001. MTN emerged as the first to make a successful call on its GSM network in the new dispensation. Thereafter, the country launched full commercial operations beginning in Lagos, Abuja, and Port-Harcourt. MTN advertising activities commenced before its operation. They virtually painted the streets of Lagos and Abuja Yellow its brand color of advertising, billboards and tee-shirts exhibited the advert. MTN Nigeria advertising programme captured the mood in August (2001) with its first television advertising “rising sun”. The advert shows a nation waking up to a new day with the sun rising brightly into a beautiful sky. They indeed connected Nigerians to themselves in a new day. “Achieve what you want achieve” since launched in August 2001, MTN has steadily deployed its services across Nigeria. And a growing number of high ways across Nigeria and the federal capital territory Abuja. Many of these villages and communities are being connected to the world of telecommunication for the first time ever.

The company also subsist on the core brand values of leadership, relationship integrity, innovation and “can do” it prides itself on its ability to make the impossible possible connecting people with friends, family and opportunities. The bond of friendship have got stronger. The ties of family have got closer, older friends have been nurtured. New relationships have been created, Nigerians are connected to new hopes; aspirations and better life opportunities are sourced all as a result of the power of communication.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

One major fact is that we are being bombarded with advertisement messages day-in-day -out from all imaginable media. The average consumer is exposed to a very large number of advertisements every day, particularly the urban and semi-urban population. Advertising has been perceived as a veritable medium of stimulating, motivation and influencing the purchase and other behavioral response of their prospective customers. The potency of advertising in product promotion cannot be over emphasized. Though MTN products like MTN pay-Go, MTN Share and Sell, MTN talk-On, MTN magic-Number, MTN call-Back, MTN mobile Money MTN Friends & Family, MTN Pulse, MTN Happy hour, MTN TruTalk etc. are made known to their customers through advertising, there are still some problems affecting customers‟ awareness of their products.

Though there are other media through which MTN advertises its products, television advertising is of more important in MTN advertising. Although there are certain problems encountered by MTN in advertising its products in Enugu metropolis; such as the appropriate time to reach the target audience at the same time, the problem of which television houses within Enugu metropolis watch most, the quality and clarity of messages that will be best understood by MTN customers or perspective customers. Despite all the benefits derivable from sales promotion and the need to keep up with stiff competition in the market place, many organizations especially in the developing countries still fail to accept sales promotion as a marketing tool to be reckoned with?

The question the researcher seeks to address is, what is the actual impact of television advertising of MTN products on residents of Enugu metropolis concerning numerous problems confronting television advertising production?

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The purpose of carrying out this research includes the following;

1. To find out if the residents of Enugu metropolis have access to television.

2. To determine the frequency of exposure of residents of Enugu to MTN advert messages on television.

3. To examine the impact of MTN television advertisements on residents of Enugu metropolis.

1.4 Research Questions

1. Do the residents of Enugu metropolis have access to television?

2. What is the frequency of exposure of residents of Enugu metropolis to MTN adverts on television?

3. What is the impact of MTN television advertisements on residents of Enugu metropolis?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

H1: There is significant difference between residents of Enugu metropolis who watch MTN television adverts and those who do not.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study intends to cover the entire MTN Company in Enugu and its environs. In a nutshell the study is delimited to only identifying the impact of

Television advertising even though advertising consist of promotion, personal, selling, sales promotion and public relation.

It therefore cost intensive to cover all these fields of study. The research therefore is to investigate the relevance of television advertisement in the promotion of sales from the staff and top management of MTN Company in some restricting Enugu metropolis.

1.7 Significance of the Study.

Economically the finding will be beneficial to MTN Company by providing feedback, a frame work which they will use to measure the advertising effectiveness, especially in the area of communication. It will also give them a better understand and knowledge of advertising activities as a necessary tool for marketing productivity.

To the public‟s, it will get them more exposed to the advert messages that they will get to know more about the products they are buying and the benefits and compare the products with other related ones.

To advertisers who have advertising as their profession, it will give them more details about the company studied in this research and enable them to know when and how to reach the public and how best to make a good living as advertisers.
 

Finally, this research will provide on in depth knowledge to researchers and readers alike.

1.8 Operational Definition of Terms.

Impact: Is the powerful effects or influence MTN has on its subscribers.

Advertising: it is the effort of MTN Nigeria to present and promote the sales of its products through the media.

Products: they are goods and services provided by MTN such as MTN callback, MTN talk-on, MTN mobile money etc.

Television: it is an electronic medium through which information about the products
and services of MTN are transmitted to the target audience heterogeneously.