The dissertation researched has been presented and submitted as one of the units with my approval as the instructor (supervisor)
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Table of Contents
Chapter one 1
Introduction 1
Effects of advertisements 2
Misrepresentation of a product in the ads 2
False image 2
Not disclosing the side effects 2
Background 3
Rationale 5
Statement of the problem 5
Aims of the study 6
Research questions 6
Theoretical framework 6
Significance of the study 7
Structure of the argument 7
Chapter two: Literature Review 9
Chapter Three: Consumer Behaviour 18
Introduction 18
Reasons for studying consumer behaviour 20
Applying knowledge based on consumer behaviour 21
External environment that affect the consumer behaviour 21
Social class 21
Influence from family 22
Influence from social Group 22
Individual influences 22
Chapter four 24
Ethical issues 24
Conclusion 25
Table of figures
Figure 1. The Theoretical framework (designed by the author of this dissertation) 7
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First I would like to give special thanks to my supervisor (………………) for his continued encouragement and support throughout the project. He has contributed a lot in the shaping of this dissertation through the tireless contribution he made. Without His support, I would not succeed in making the study this far.
Secondly, I would like to appreciate everyone who supported me in any magnitude, especially the students that we have been working together. My special thanks go to (………………)
All the glory and honor be to the almighty God for giving me such a wonderful opportunity and enabling me to come to the final of this course. I am grateful.
Chapter one
Introduction
Advertisements have a crucial role in changing attitudes and behaviours of consumers on the products publicized in the adverts, more so in this decade where there is demand for information and in the world where media is widespread. Advertisements for brands of wider varieties are seen as an important tool in marketing and have been used globally in ages. A very sharp increase has been observed on brand advertisement for more than two decades now, this has not only affected the consumer behaviour but has also changed the consumer's attitude which they hold on certain products. Public presentation, unilateralism, the expressiveness of high levels and commercialism are some of the most vital features found in advertisements. (Kotler and Lee 2005).
Consumer behaviour is defined as a process involved in decision making which includes some physical activities that an individual engages in assessing, purchasing, and using the goods and services (Kotler, P. & Gary Armstrong, 2005). In addition, it shows the consumers totality of decisions of pre-purchasing behaviours in acquiring, consuming, and the nature of goods, time, ideas and services. There are various factors that affect the consumer behaviour which include, consumer needs and motivation, psychographics, attitude, communication, culture, social and economic factors.
Advertisements are known to play a key part in determining the behaviour that the consumer is going to portray while selecting, purchasing and consuming a certain product and service (East et al 2016). However, even though the consumers are able to easily recognise the persuasive nature of advertisements still they find themselves easily succumbed by the advertisements. Therefore, it is known far and wide that advertisements have very special attributes on the products and services which greatly determine the consumers’ decisions when it comes to purchasing particular brands.
Effects of advertisements
Misrepresentation of a product in the ads
The main aim of the advertisement is for a product to be represented in the best way possible. Therefore, there is need to be very creative in this process, but problems always seem to arise in this process when the creativity during the advertisement crosses the line and now becomes a false representation of the product thus giving false information of the initial product. This could have a negative or positive effect on how the customer's behaviour in its consumption.
False image
Most advertisements give the audience a certain perception of what the outcome of using certain products will be which in reality are false and unattainable. For instance in ads where female characters advertise certain products portraying that women should be slim, beautiful and have fulltime jobs while men should be tall, athletic, caring husbands, virile and handsome at all times which is unrealistic.
Not disclosing the side effects
This is one of the challenges that majorly affect the customers since the advertisers mostly do not disclose the disadvantages and the side effects that one would experience when they use the products. This greatly affects the end consumer of the product. However, in the long-run, the consumer behaviour of those products will be seen to change once they learn of the negative effects. Therefore, it is important for any company to disclose the side effects of their products as they make the advertisements.
Background
The underground advertisement has turned out to be a very essential tool in targeting a bigger percentage of the audience in London since it offers a platform where the brands are able to communicate to the specific audience using the various different forms of tube advertisements. Home advertisements become obsolete because it is able to accommodate a massive population thus expanding the audience being targeted. Underground advertising is one of the unique transport network features and has definitely been the busiest network where a very large volume of passengers use the tube, this has been helpful in navigation from one region to another (Larcom et al 2017). This tube advertisements help in directing the adverts towards the audience in businesses that are key and on specific shopping districts ranging from the office workers that are fast-paced found in the financial districts to shoppers visiting one of the leading destinations for quality shopping found in the Oxford Streets. There is a vast coverage of various diverse audiences of different gender, religion, heritage, interest, economic background, sexual orientation, language and ages that is including the children.
It is approximated that about 30 million journeys are made every day on the underground transport network. About 87 percent of the consumers are said to be actively looking for and majorly welcome the ads they see on the London underground using them as distractions when they are commuting. Research shows that it the advertisements made on the tubes reach out to approximately 74 percent of the audience profile as compared to the roadside advertisement thus making the underground advertisement more effective in reaching a bigger number of audience. Additionally, through the underground advertisement in the heart of London’s diverse climate helps captures the audience and consumers not only from London but also tourists from the United Kingdom and internationally, the shoppers and commuters from all over which it is approximated that 79 percent of them have responded to the tube advertisements seen. To ensure that the stations are in a sparkling and bright manner the transport for London majorly plays a key role, since underground advertisement requires a high-quality display location that is important in boosting the bigger footfall for the brand. Nevertheless, the underground advertisement has not only been of great benefit to the customers through their enhanced experience in their journey but has also helped in revenue delivery whereby they are able to reinvest it to the transport networks. Unlike print media, online network and television which in most cases are not closed in that the customers can turn a page or simply switch off an advert that they think it upsets them in a way, the underground advertisement network is large and closed (Wright et al 2016). Therefore, due to this diversity and scale the advertisement to be made must be responsive and should consider what kind of advertisement the customers expect and want to view, hence clear guidelines are set by the advertisers for the brand in order to try and understand the expectations. Transport for London aims at enhancing the transport environment and engaging their customers hence they work with the agencies, customers and the brands to encourage and support great advertising so as to achieve the right balance.
Rationale
In order to for any business to be able to smoothly and efficiently make strategies that are meant for product promotion it is vital that the functioning of the customers brain be clearly understood by the business. Therefore, it is very necessary to try and examine what are the various factors that help in attracting, motivating and driving the consumer behaviour turns out to be valuable. For any advertiser who can relate to what brings customers loyalty effectively have a competitive advantage over other companies, it is important to understand the aspect to great advertising strategies since their campaign will based on accurate information and thus have a well-structured campaign. Hence by conducting this study many companies that use the underground advertisement will have an opportunity to understand the various issues related to the psychology of consumers in terms of their reasoning, thinking and feeling when making a choice between various alternatives. Additionally, the advertisers would advance their marketing strategies in order to grasp perfect time, advertising techniques that turns out to be very effective and are able to derive the consumer satisfaction. Lastly the study will be of great importance in gaining greater understanding of social marketing, thus ensuring that the ideas to be advertised are consumer based as opposed to them being based on sales that are forceful.
Statement of the problem
The study will focus on Advertising on the London Underground and how influential it is, this is because it is interesting how advertisements are integrated with the very large populations using the underground networks in London daily. The main objective was focusing on how commuters’ subconscious is influenced and their reaction to the bland advertisement.
Aims of the study
The study mainly aims at exploring opinions and the views on the nature of advertisement of the commuters and those passing by in order to make improvements where necessary. Additionally, the general behaviour depicted by the London underground forces the commuter to avoid making eye contacts, therefore, they are forced to look at the advertisement which turns out to have no effect to the advertisers who aims at promoting product thus it turns out to have no significant effect since it not something that the commuters were interested to look at in the first place. Therefore this research aims at determining the following;
1. To determine the impacts of underground advertisement on consumer behaviour.
2. To establish the effects that advertising has on consumers attitude.
3. To determine to what extent is the underground advertisements eye-catching and memorable.
4. To establish the benefits of using underground advertisement over road advertisement
Research questions
1. How has underground advertisement affected your consumption behaviour?
2. What are the views and opinion regarding the advertisement done?
3. Which is one was the most memorable advert?
4. How are the psychological and the behaviours of the consumers or commuters like?
Theoretical framework
Independent Dependent
Figure 1. The Theoretical framework (designed by the author of this dissertation)
Significance of the study
Many studies have been done majorly on how the underground advertisement is beneficial to the companies doing the advertisement. However, little has been barely done on how underground advertisements affect the consumer's behaviour. Therefore, this study will help in discovering new statistics that may be beneficial to companies to change their advertisement designs so as to attract more people to view the adverts. The commuters and those who pass by will be able to get their opinion put into consideration by the companies doing advertisements and thus I will be able to understand better what majorly affects most commuters, what adverts are eye-catching which are easily remembered such that they can be able to pass the information on the advert to other potential audience, this will be very crucial for me as the researcher to achieving my objectives.
Structure of the argument
The research will be subdivided into various chapters which include
Chapter one-this section will give an introduction to the topic of discussion, a detailed background, aims of the research, research questions and the significance of the study.
Chapter two- literature review on the effects advertising has on consumer behaviour will be broadly discussed in this section.
Chapter three- this section will give an overview of consumer behaviour, reasons for studying consumer behaviour and application of the knowledge, and also the external environment factors that affect consumer behaviours.
Chapter four- in this section a group survey will be conducted using questionnaires related to advertisements on the London underground
Conclusion- all the chapters will be summarised in this section for the whole dissertation, and conclusions made.
Chapter two: Literature Review
In the past decades, advertisements have been ongoing and its importance derived from a course offered in 1905 by the University of Pennsylvania relating to marketing products, thus consumer behaviour is not a new concept all the same. In the recent past various scientists’ major focus was on motivation and derived theories of motivation such as Maslow and Freud, however, we can also view advertisements as an important tool for consumer motivation to make purchases of different products. Psychological advertising can be used as motivation while others are motivated by looking at celebrities used by big companies which are now leading in their market shares to endorse the various product brands hence helps them to target and influence their customers by altering their behaviours. Therefore, consumer behaviour has become a key component in companies globally thus has been considered relatively important in the social sciences in today’s day and age. The literature review is majorly aimed at discovering how consumer behaviour is affected by advertisement and the important aspects that are aimed at preparing the marketing strategies since every single company would wish to attract the highest population to come and purchase their products.
In 2008 Narbutas and Susneiene, in their study analysed the psychological impacts that advertising had on the consumer behaviour, whereby behavioural, emotional and cognitive aspects were evaluated and documented during this study. Primary data and analysis of research literature, impact on attention, interest, desires, action were distinguished from the model in the stages of advertising. Narbutas and Susneiene’s main objective of conducting the study was for the purposes of establishing the major impacts that advertisement had on consumer behaviour by conducting a qualitative survey. They concluded that consumers are influenced by the advertisements through the cognitive aspects whereby, cognitive psychological aspects were linked to consumer knowledge. In addition, the findings also showed that the second psychological feature which is the emotional feature majorly influenced the customer more since it lead to thoughts that are optimistic for most respondents. Notably the advertisement ads were there the factors that contributed to this achievement which created psychological vigour on the consumers’ behaviour.
Hashmi (2010) researched on the impacts and the receptiveness of advertisements that were electronically transmitted to university student and the personalities used in advertisement that greatly affected the consumers’ behaviour. As learning sample psychometric properties of scale we recognized in advertisements of property. To gauge the effects of commercials, self-explanatory questionnaires were used that consisted of 30 items that were fixed which were adopted together with the instructions made. In conclusion the research found out that advertisement was optimistically related with the success accomplished. In addition, attitudes are shaped by natives towards given objects based on their knowledge, perception and beliefs attached to those objects. He also found out that in the commercials, the captions that are used swayed customers immensely since they are largely used by commercials as the factors that help in gaining interests as well as the dominating factors. Lastly, the research findings concluded that there was a significant relationship between titles of the commercials and persuasions.
Gulmez et al. (2010) conducted a research on Sivas Province to determine if the degree of outdoor advertisements had any effects on the customers while also measuring the effects of consumers’ purchasing power. Additionally, the researchers aimed at positioning the different personalities found in outdoor advertisements in evaluating the additional instruments of advertisement in conjunction with its effects on the purchasing behaviour of the consumer. More attention is placed on consumers living in the city Centre of Sivas dimensions of advertisement on customers’ behaviour in the outdoor and also to point on the various differences in respect to demographics that are closely related to those dimensions. A face to face survey was conducted to collect the data, whereby the research took a sample of 30 individuals and conducted a beta survey. Non- random sampling was used to select 400 people living in Sivas city undertook the face to face interview survey. T-test, factor analysis and variant analysis were used to analyse the data in the research. The finding from the analysis showed that the customers with income that is stumpy are ordinarily not keen at observing the advertisements made in the outdoor, thus outdoor advertisements are not significant in comparison with the customers who generally have higher levels of income. Additionally, from the findings it is seen that the public have positive opinions in relation to outdoor advertisements. Since they perceive those advertisements from the outdoor as being imaginative and have an extra striking power as compared to other forms of advertisements and the visual brunt are useful due to the seizes of their materials. Lastly, dissimilar thoughts which are very important in persuading and informing the public as well as between customers with different income levels and superior educational levels hence the visibility of outdoor advertisement is mounting and becoming prominent.
Matthew et al. (2013) in their research meant to determine and look into how advertisements could be controlled on the customers’ behaviours during buying. They concluded that age influences advertisements and made suggestions to additional enhancement in advertisements in the brand management that was helpful in the Cadbury Nigeria PLC specifically and other firms made efforts meant to widely boost their market share. The findings shows derived from the hypothesis shows that the age group of the customers did not play a role in deciding the treatment to be given to Cadbury Nigeria PLC advertisement efforts. A sample of 315 was randomly chosen during the study to various customers of drinks, food cities in Nigeria such as Lagos. Aimed at examining the role that advertisement play in influencing the likes of customers on Bourn Vita, this being one of the widely known and leading food drinks more so in Nigeria in the Food and Beverage industries. The research used both expressive and inferential figures when analysing information that was collected. In order to group variables like media preference, awareness sources and customer branding, both percentage and analysis were used by the study. It was found out that consumer brand liking does not necessarily prevail in the food and drink industry as well as the fact that customers do not just buy whatever is offered even if it is cheap. In order to gain customers loyalty for the various brands a merchandise price should be of a very good value. Additionally, the research found out that advertisements are important in determining and forecasting prices and the quality of the product even before the consumer does. In conclusion, it is see that advertisements have greatly influenced the customers liking for Burn Vita and have continuously contributed to all it has accomplished.
Further research conducted by Rasool and Rafique (2012) with an aim of finding out what are some of the effects that advertisement had on the behaviours of consumers in Lahore city as well as looking for the advertisement method that largely effect the customers behaviour and to determine whether sexual characteristics can lead to changes in the consumer behaviour, whether the advertisement influences the behaviours of the consumers or not. Questionnaires were used in the study to determine advertisement effects in line with the persons age was conducted in order to get knowledge and create awareness about different toothpaste brands. A sample of five toothpaste brand was chosen in the study. Z-test, descriptive analysis and analysis of Chi-square were conducted in the study and presentations were in form of pi-charts and bar charts. The intentions of the questionnaires were meant for identification of the point of view at which the people from the general public have that impacts the consumers behaviours. In order to complete the 150 different samples taken from the respondents in various regions in Lahore, non-random convenience sapling technique were undertaken in the survey. The study deduced that consumer behaviours can be sustained due to cultures particularly when ethnicity, trends, and cultural background varies among the various users and influence the choices they can make. Consumers are greatly aware of the nature and the quality of the products and they would want to improve nature of the toothpaste not only by considering the freshness but are also to use it as many times as possible. Media advertisement is mostly preferred as compared to newspapers, posters and banners. Lastly, the findings showed that products which are readily available tend to easily resonate with the end users as compared to the quality that catches the attention of the consumers’ behaviour. People generally acquire products brands that are of low qualities due to their income disposition.
According to Bishnoi and Sharma (2009) study whose aim was to find out whether TV advertisements differently influence the consumers residential background to their buying decisions. The research main focus was meant to ascertain the impacts of advertisements that are made on television and how it affects the manner in which the Indian teenagers buy. A sample of 866 teenagers was taken, of which 440 of them were sampled from rural areas while 426 were sampled from the urban areas. Means, ANOVA, counts and percentages were used to analyse the data collected having the present study majorly focusing on teenagers in schools and colleges in Haryana. This is meant to know how TV advertisements have influenced the buying behaviour among his teenagers. Multistage sampling technique was used in four Haryana districts selected randomly from all administrative divisions. 1000 questionnaires were circulated among all the respondents targeted by this study. It is found that urban teenagers do not like television advertisement as compared to the rural teenagers thus this has helped them to participate more in assortment and purchase of products. Additionally, the perceptions of the urban and rural teenagers vary considerably on issues that are influenced by television advertisements related to the demand of the certain products. The findings were further broken down and revealed that male teenagers tend to be influenced by advertisements made on television as compared to the female teenagers.
Subhani and Mateen( 2011) in their study to cross-examine the effects that arises from advertisement on the loyalty of customers that are deceptive, ventured in the telecommunication industry of Pakistan. Network quality, charges, customer services and network coverage are some of the factors that they considered in measuring the telecom ads dishonesty and how it has negatively affected the loyalty of the consumers as well as substituting consumer loyalty by tattering consumer preferences. A questionnaire was designed in order to collect data by conducting a survey from the customers’ mobile phones that aimed at evaluating telecommunication blue print services, and also interviewing their opinion related to the advertisements made by the telecommunication services, their awareness of ads that are corrupt and how this untruthfulness affect the customers preference that the telecommunication services intended to achieve. Personal survey was used on statistics that was based on non-probability sampling of mobile phones usage. The data that was gathered was analysed using Test of moments and one simple t-test analysis. The results illustrated that the main idea behind deception actions that emerge drastically aiming at establishing a deception that is stunning to its customers it is seen that the promises of this construction of the coefficient have a significant difference as compared to the provider coefficients. In conclusion it was poised that telecom networks service providers are more or less encompassed by using claims that are exaggerated and fake which is a form of deception when they are creating awareness and promoting their products.
According to a research done by Abideen and Rashid( 2009) to establish how television advertisements impact children and how this advertisements influences the eating disorder and behaviours among the children. It was seen that the television advertisements are of low nutritional benefits, envious and not necessary to be purchased. In order to classify the serious impacts and check various factors that are of significance on how this TV promotion affect children were the main aim of their study. A questionnaire that composed as a five point scale were given to children in schools and are between the age bracket of 9 to 14 years of age. The samples were taken from four cities that are within Pakistan. The collected data was analysed using a Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Unnecessary purchases, materialism and food with low nutritious value were the dependent variable while the independent variable is the relation of TV advertisements. The research made recommendations that the consequences that arises from the television advertisements lead to malnourishment and high levels of obesity due to the fact that the children take food that is not healthy and mostly sugary and oily. In addition in the long-run the children are seen to poses violent behaviours after sending most of their time watching brutal programs and advertisement thus increasing this probability. Parents are manipulated to buy products that are not significant this shows that the children have been greatly influenced by the advertisements they see thus predicting the children’s behaviour however the television advertisements are not the only factor contributing to this behavioural changes of children in their consumption
Joshi (2012) conducted an analysis on the relationship between consumer behaviour when it comes to making purchases and advertising with celebrities. The sample was taken only from 91 students in the faculty of economic who were enrolled in Jarash University for all programs in BA. Questionnaires were designed and contained three major questions which includes, how could companies handle risks that can emerge from the use of celebrities n their advertisements, when do the companies endorse the use of celebrities and how do the companies do their celebrity selections. It also contained a formulated question being; what are the effects of using celebrities in advertisements aiming at influencing the consumers’ behaviours. The main variables of the study are subdivided into three main sections, measuring it with a scale of five point Likert. Five levels of agreement are found in the scale starting from strongly agree up to strongly disagree. The findings illustrated that advertisements that use celebrities is perceived to be very attractive. On the decisions made by consumers to buy was found not to be affected by the use of celebrities, in other words advertising using celebrities was statistically insignificant.
Qun and Lun (2004) did an analysis with an aim of understanding if there are any negative effects that arise from adding humorous versions in the advertisement messages that are sexual appealing. For the past two decade provocative sexual appeals have increasingly been used to advertise various products in most of the countries. In their research they used amiability, gender and the humour perceived by the said advertisement. 64 students from Baptist University undergraduate that is located in Hong Kong from the school of communication were taken as a sample. Sampling design that was used was the most convenient since the research targeted to get internal information as opposed to information from the externally hence it was not necessary to represent the population. Both female and male were picked at an equal proportion of 16 people each and the questionnaires were distributed to each of them. The alleged humour and gender acted as the independent variable while amiability was used as the dependent variable. From the findings it was found out the alleged humour found in an advertisement has a positive association to the amiability of the advertisement despite the fact that causality is not known. Thus coming into a conclusion that the differences found on the amiability of the two groups that saw the advertisements was not significant whether it had humour or not. However in a case where the advertisements were manipulated, it was found out that both alleged humour and sexiness were viewed from a different angle.
In 2010, Brower et al. conducted an analysis that was meant to assert how radio station advertisements influenced the commuter in the urban areas to behavioural change when they want to make purchases in retail outlets as well as trying to evaluate how broadcasting information from the advertisements from the stations which are directed to promoting sales become effective. Buying preferences and the ability to choose which store to buy from as influenced by advertisements made from the radio were empirically investigated. It can be deduced from the findings that most consumer shopping behaviours of people are in the urban is greatly influenced by the cognitive, economic and physical variables.
Chapter Three: Consumer Behaviour
In this chapter our main aim is to understand more about consumer behaviour it starts with an introduction where will get the definition, reasons for studying consumer behaviour and the external factors that affect the consumer behaviour.
Introduction
Every human being is a consumer since each one of us on a daily basis we consume, use and purchase products that we derive our satisfaction in. The goods are classified into various sections such as speciality goods, consumable goods, industrial goods and durable goods. There are a number of factors whether external or internal that influence when, how, what, and where we buy this factors could be based on motivations, age, opinion, cultural and social background. Depending with the classes that people are in the society people vary on their consumption whereby certain group is able to purchase large amount of goods within a very short time interval while others not only are they not able to purchase large amounts but they rarely are they able to satisfy their basic needs.
Consumer behaviour can be described to as the process through which an organization a group or an individual use when selecti
