Perception of Business Education Undergraduates in Universities of South-South Nigeria on E-Advertising of Goods and Services

Dr (Mrs.) P.E. Okoro¹, Dr O.V. Oroka²

^1,2 Department of Business Education, Faculty of Education, Delta State University, Abraka.

ABSTRACT: This study investigated the perception of Business Education Undergraduates in Universities of South-South Nigeria on e-advertising of goods and services. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population comprised 661 from which 370 were randomly sampled for the study. A validated and reliable questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. The data obtained were analysed through the use of mean and standard deviation for the research question. The hypothesis was tested with Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services is high, and that a significant relationship exists between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising. It was therefore, recommended that business owners should integrate e-advertising into their businesses so as to increase their productivity and earning power.

KEYWORDS: Business Education; Undergraduates; E-Advertising; E-business Goods and Services

INTRODUCTION

E-Advertising is a form of promotion that uses the internet for the expressed purpose of delivery marketing messages to attract customers (Kim & Park, 2012). E-Advertising can contain video, animation and audio and it is compelling like television advertisement.

Students in the tertiary institutions now make digital tools and networks more than ever before and e-advertising is the most suitable way to reach many students in terms of advertising consumer goods and services. Most online advertisers use banner advertisement to create awareness about an existing product for consumers (Akpokiniovo, 2022).

It is a popular homepage advertisement that combines words and pictures with the contextual presentation style in a webpage to attract a user to click and buy a product online (Chi & Yet, 2012). They appear in different locations on the websites with varying sizes and shapes that are determined by the budget of the advertiser.

According to Tavor (2011), it is an advertising sign of the firm that is part of the web page, tapestry and when clicked on, links the licker directly to the advertiser’s chosen website.

Electronic mail (E-mail) provides a good platform that allows messages to be delivered using a range of approaches such as webpage on the mail, product catalogue and newsletter, depending on the chosen format selected. It includes a broad range of interactive features and hyperlinks in order to sustain prospective customers’ attention. Through E-mail advertising the knowledge of consumer goods is made known to the students.

According to Ryan and Jones (2012) E-mail marketing involves sending E-mail to customer with a list that usually contains a sales pitch and a call to action. Some retailers design short, snappy, anonymous promotion messages to elicit an immediate response, whereas others develop long complex sender identified messages aimed at engaging the prospective customer in a more involving interaction in order to enhance patronage of a product.

Chadwick & Doherty (2012) affirm that consumers are more likely to patronize a product recommended for them on the web, especially social media platforms with the popularity of social network becoming a new place for online advertising. Zukerberg (2007) states that there is a considerable diversity important for e-advertisers who are concerned with the co-creation of their brands, goods and services on different social media platforms(Smith, Fischer and Yong Jan 2012).

The number of students in our tertiary institutions who are in social networking has increased tremendously in recent times. The use of smart phones and other sophisticated mobile devices is very popular among undergraduates in tertiary institutions. This has encouraged patronage of consumer goods and services through e-advertising on different social media.

The use of facebook is unarguably a form of e-advertising. A study by Alvin (2017) on effectiveness of on-line advertising on consumers’ decision atRadio Africa Group Limited, Nairobi, Kenya using a sample of the respondents indicated that utilization of on-line advert provides feedback which enhances product awareness.

Emotions and perception regarding consumer goods and services consist of those factors which affect the minds of business education undergraduates in terms of their cultural values and beliefs (Romanius& Sharp, 2004).

Roles of E-Advertising

1. It projects the good image of a firm
2. It educates the public on the use of a product.
3. It increases sales.
4. Introduces a new product
5. It creates awareness.
6. It increases production

Functions of E-Advertising

1. Awareness building
2. Efficient reminding
3. Reassurance
4. Help consumers compare quality and price
5. Educate consumers.

Reasons for E-Advertising

1. To announce a new product or services
2. To challenge competitors
3. To maintain sales
4. To remind customers
5. To please the sales forces
6. To expand the market to new buyer
7. To announce a price change.
8. To make a special offer.
9. To announce modification
10. To educate consumers.

Criticism of E- Advertising

1. Helps to increase the cost of goods sold
2. Consumers bear the brunt of advertising
3. Leads to monopoly
4. Misleads consumers to buy goods they do not want.
5. Encourages multiplication of brands
6. Exploiting the desire of a consumer by making a particular product more attractive or appealing.
7. Unsolicited commercial e-mail and spam
8. Encouraging people to live beyond their means.
9. Interrupts Programs especially on television and radio

Basic Ethics and Principles of E-Advertising

1. Decency
2. Honesty
3. Social Responsibility
4. Truthful Presentation
5. Compassions
6. Imitation
7. Safety and Health
8. Avoidance of Harm
9. Environmental behaviour

Objectives of E-Advertising

The following are specific objectives of E-Advertising;

1. Supports personal selling
2. Reaches inaccessible people
3. Improves dealer relations
4. Attracts new groups of customers.
5. Introduces a new product.
6. Increases sales of the product
7. Builds goodwill
8. Reminds old customers.

Purpose of E-Advertising

The purpose of E-Advertising is to:

1. Convince customers
2. Enhance the image of a company
3. Point out and create the need for a product or service
4. Demonstrate new uses for products.
5. Announce new products and programmes.
6. Reinforce the sales force.
7. Draw customers to the business.
8. Hold existing customers.

Ways of Protecting Consumer in E-Advertising

1. Establishment of the E-Advertising Council of Nigeria
2. Establishing E-Advertising code of practice.
3. Consumer education.
4. Establishment of professional group (AAPN)
5. Statutory control legislation guiding the practice of e-advertising in order to protect the consumer e.g. Sales of Goods Act 1893, Copy Right Act 1986, Indecent Advertising Act 1889 etc. E-Advertising media include television, radio, internet and the social media.

Ways/Methods of E-Advertising

Television

Television is one of the most powerful e-advertising methods at it can combine visual and audio e-advertising messages in an endless variety.

Advantages

1. Good for product demonstration since shape, form and color of a product is seen.
2. Conveys messages with motions, sights, sound and sales.
3. Simple, easy to understand quickly.
4. Targeted audience reached.
5. Flexibility in deciding the advert size and placement.
6. Attracts the attention of huge audience.
7. There are combined effects of seeing and hearing.
8. Has a large audience – wider coverage.

Disadvantages

1. Subject to strict controls.
2. It is very expensive (advert space)
3. Hidden messages and subtle meanings, commercial display is not easily spotted.
4. Only people with television know what was advertised.
5. There are lots of dramatic changes in advertising.
6. Leads to impulsive buying.
7. Time lags on picture presentation are relatively too small.
8. Competing with others and viewers environment.
9. Multiple exposure requires achieving message retention and consumer action.

Radio

This is a method of verbal e-advertising which carries all forms of advertising. Radio advertisement are broadcast as radio waves to the air from a transmitter to an antenna and thus to a receiving device.

Advantages:

1. Very flexible
2. Relatively cheap
3. Wider coverage – universal medium enjoyed by many people.
4. Uses different languages.
5. Expanding medium found on air and also on-line.
6. People are used to radio commercials.
7. Uses sounds and voices
8. Rates negotiated.

Disadvantages

1. It is restricted to sound.
2. Pictures are not seen.
3. Does not demonstrate product.
4. Brief without full information.
5. To track attention is hard.
6. Frequent interruption.
7. Flash back is hard.
8. Listeners are spread all over, thereby using different stations.

Internet

Internet advertising is one of the newest means of advertising which helps in expanding a local market to international market.

Advantages

1. Easy to track results.
2. Used at home, on the move.
3. Reaching a global audience
4. Low cost/inexpensive compared to more traditional means of advertisement.
5. Measures effectiveness of advertising.
6. Targeted audience
7. Affordable
8. Speed
9. Information
10. Better return on investment
11. Better branding.

Disadvantages

1. Huge competitiveness and seen beyond readers of particular websites.
2. Meant for computer literate society.
3. Isolates important groups of the society.
4. Easily ignoredor slain over compared to hard copy.
5. Must create a website/blog.
6. Products are compatible.
7. Not offline
8. Deficient to track results.
9. Product/service not touched/felt, seen.
10. Distrust of means.
11. Lack of trust.

Social Media Advertising

As web has evolved into a medium that fosters social connection, social media has experienced growth n today’s advertising. It consists of social networking and social bookmarking sites such as blogs, video sharing sites such as You tube, Micro Blogging Platform, Twitter, Face book, Likedin, Stumblenpon etc.

Advantages

1. Reach a wide range of customers.
2. Good for building customer’s relationship.
3. Generates traffic

Disadvantages

1. Low return on investment
2. Many people are not interested in advertising as they are in the platform to socialize.
3. Targeting is slow because of diversity of audience.
4. Hand branding tool for small business.
5. No secrecy.
6. Unguided information
7. Hard to build awareness, create appeal and generate traffic.
8. Unknown agenda of information
9. Exposure of children to pornography
10. Increases social vices
11. Unwanted messages
12. Vulnerability of individuals
13. Misrepresentation of information and pictures.
14. No sources of information; that is not authenticity.
15. Invasion of privacy
16. Creating money for another body.

Statement of the Problem

The perception of goods and services can be hampered when awareness is not created about the existence of such goods or why such goods should be purchased instead of alternatives especially where such alternatives are available. Most businesses before the advent of e-advertising technologies avoided costs associated with e-advertisement of their products and services.

The story today has taken a different look because of the availability of e-advertising technology opportunities. Despite the availability of e-advertisement technologies, there are a lot of abuse with different perception motives which do not meet the purpose. It is against this backdrop that the researcher deems it fit to assess the e-advertising perception on products and services by Business Education undergraduates in South-South Nigeria.

Research Questions

1. What are the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services.

Hypotheses

1. There is no significant relationship between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to examine e-advertising perception on products and services by Business Education undergraduates in universities in South-South Nigeria. Specifically, the study examines the;

1. Perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising.
2. Perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising on products and services.

METHOD

The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. A structured questionnaire was administered to Business Education final year undergraduates from tertiary institutions in South-South Nigeria for data collection. These Institutions are University of Benin, Benin-City, Edo State, Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa, Anambra State, University of Calabar, Cross River State.

The population of the study was 661 from which 370 were randomly sampled for the study. The questionnaire was validated by experts in the field of measurement and evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was determined by administering ten (10) sets of questionnaires to ten (10) business education lecturers who were not part of the research study. Their responses were analysed using Cronbach Alpha measure of internal consistency which yielded a co-efficient alpha value of 0.93 which was high enough to be reliable.

The instrument for data collection was administered to the respondents by the researcher with the help of one trained research assistant. A total number of 330 were completely filled and returned indicating 94.1% return rate.The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation for answering questions while Pearson correlation was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. A mean rating that is 2.50 was regarded as high perception while a mean rating that is less than 2.50 was regarded as low perception.

RESULTS

Research Question 1: What are the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services.

Table 1: Mean perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services

Table 1 shows the mean rating of the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services. From the result, the mean score ranged between 2.75 and 3.29, which are all above the criterion mean of 2.50. The table also shows that the average mean is 3.09. This implies that all the items were accepted as the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services, which is high.

Hypothesis 1: There is no significant relationship between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising

Table 2: Pearson’s correlation analysis of the relationship between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising

Table 2 shows the result of a Pearson’s correlation and coefficient determination which was used to determine the relationship that exists between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising. The result shows an r-value of 0.292 and an r²-value of 0.085, p < 0.05 level of significance. Hence, the null hypothesis is rejected, which indicate that a positive relationship exists between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising. As shown in the result, the perception of Business Education undergraduates contributed 8.5% to the variability in effectiveness of e-advertising.

DISCUSSION

The findings of the study revealed that the perception of Business Education undergraduates on e-advertising of goods and services is high. This means that the students perceived that e-advertising of goods and services is as being very relevant and useful in the businesses. From the analysis of data obtained, it was found that a significant positive relationship exists between the perception of Business Education undergraduates and effectiveness of e-advertising. the perception of Business Education undergraduates contributed 8.5% to the variability in effectiveness of e-advertising. This means that when e-advertising is properly applied, it will help to improve businesses and organizational productivity.

The above finding agrees with Okolo and Ehikwe (2015), who stated that e-advertising is a more comfortable, convenient and cost-effective method of doing bossiness with marketers. It also agrees with Vinerean, et al. (2013), who noted that through the Facebook and Twitter, customers can easily meet with brand reps and in turn communicate a company’s brand with their friends. The finding also agrees Okolo, et al. (2018), who concluded in their study of impact of online advertising on the profitability of Ecobank Nigeria plc, that online advertisement is a robust and veritable determinant of banking sector profitability in Nigeria.

CONCLUSION

In view of the findings of the study, it can be concluded that undergraduate students of Business Education have a positive perception of the E-Advertising of Goods and Services, with their perception having a positive influence on the effectiveness of e-advertising

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the finding from the study, it is hereby recommended that business owners should integrate e-advertising into their businesses so as to increase their productivity, patronage, awareness and earning power.

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