THE EFFECT OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING ON PRODUCT PROMOTION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Advertising has grown popular as a tool of academic inquiry, a field of professional practice and an index of modern business.  It has come to assume the centre of modern marketing and it is one of the major forms of promotion on product and service marketing.  Billboard advertising has assumed a wider and prominent position on product promotion in recent times in Nigeria.  Despite electronic media, billboard advertising got product promotion on the increase.

This new discovery on product promotion has not only given rise to advertising agencies, that specialized only in billboards advertising, but also a strong association of billboard advertising agencies in Nigeria which is recognized by advertisers as a subsidiary of the Advertising Practitioner Council of Nigeria (APCON).  But as has been articulated by Adeyemi (1969), the constitutional provisions on freedom of expression can be said to amount only to an ordered freedom of which cannot be used as a license to spread communication that debased public morality.  However, many of these ethical principles have in the course of time grown to become statutory regulation codified laws.  Decree 55 of 1988 among other provisions provides that APCON show regular and control the practice of advertising in all its aspects and ramifications.  It is in this immense and wide power conferred on it, that APCON developed a code of ethics to guide and regulate the practice of advertising in Nigeria.

The increase in billboard advertising under scores the effectiveness of billboard on project promotion.  Billboards ensure frequent and repeated exposure to the advertisement. Billboards are usually located at points with high vehicle and human traffic.  Consequently, users of such points are regularly exposed to the advertisement in the board.  Secondly, billboard, also offer a high degree of locational flexibility.   In other words, the boards can be placed where the advertisers actually intended them to be.  In addition, they tend it has lower cost per thousand than most of the other media.  They are usually more cost efficient, especially for the advertiser with a small budget.  Billboard offers the advantage of very good colour reproduction and at the same time it is an effective reminder medium offer serving as a catalyst for buyers who buy in impulse.

The greatest problems encountered by advertisers and their agencies with regards to billboards is site monitoring.  Monitoring is usually difficult and so when posters get torn or washed out, it takes a while to discover and repots.  This is because the site are usually scattered around very far geographic locations.  The posters used on the board usually tedious to print and post especially when the number of sites to be covered are too many.  In other words, boards make intense creative demands on the agency.  Because they are usually seen in a fleeting second, they have to be powerfully executed so as to intrude on the passers-bys consciousness.  In this case they tend to function better as reminder media and therefore cannot serve well as the primary and sole medium for an advertising campaign.  Aside its cost efficient contributes environmental aesthetic and enduring features of landscape of towns, in the country.  Although the voice of street vendor in Nigeria grows fainter with each passing year, it is still possible to hear the mournful call and tinkling bells of the old clothes and junk man, the call of the itinerant fruit peddler with his push cart, or the street corner vendors of hot chestnuts.  And what will a football game be without the kids hawking peanuts and soft drinks?  Much the same calls in a different language echoed in the streets.

Again if you will glance town the length of the streets in Enugu metropolis, you notice that the storekeeper around the town have taken some pains to make sure they not unobserved just as the market keepers did in Ogbete main market so you can see that broadcast advertising, point of purchase advertising, and outdoor advertising (Billboards) have all been around for a long time.  but is wasn’t until the middle ages, with the world shaking advent of the printing press and moveable type, that advertising began to take the firm most familiar to as today.

Winstan Fletcher (1979), identifies the following determinants of the strength of a billboard advertising, such as, the number of posters put in any given area, the size of the poster, the specific sitting of the poster and the length of the campaign.  Because of the problem of the more boards in a given area, the greater the problem of dotter many local authorities regulate the citing of board as to prevent their indiscriminate location poster come in standard sizes referred to as “sheets”.  The dimensions of a singly sheet are usually expressed in inches for easy handling and processing.  A single limit of sheet is usually 20 inches wide by 30 inches deep.  The most commonly available poster formats are 16 sheets, 32 sheets and 48 sheets.

In addition, there is the painted boards or bulletin boards, which are hand painted (instead of printed posters) and typical sizes and 14 feet by 48 feet.  Posters cited at busy locations or junctions with high human and vehicular traffic are often more effective than those at less endowed locations.  Furthermore, the longer the duration of a campaign the more impact it tends to have.

Outdoor advertising has become a major advertising medium by advertising firms in Enugu metropolis and an indispensable source of revenue for Enugu state Government.  While advertisers buy spaces in Newspapers and Magazines, for outdoors he rents cites.  In Enugu metropolis, renting a cite centers on an advertiser the right of having his poster displayed on that size.  To do this, advertiser or his agency will retain an outdoor advertising company.  The advertising companies will have to be usually built and acquire a particular cite it wants or chooses from the ones the billboard company supplies.  It pays the outdoor agency for the production of the poster as well as rental fee for the cites.  Its media and client service monitor the posting, to ensure that all the sites are constantly and clearly posted throughout the duration of the campaign.

For all the media enumerated, management of the advertising operations is very delicate task, since in most case; advertising represents a significant source of corporate profitability.  For billboard companies particularly, the key task will entail keeping a tab on advertising agencies and solicitation that they can use the billboard firm for their campaign.  Other task include monitoring of cites to ensure that posters are in good order and properly posted, invoicing agencies for cites created and posted, ensuring prompt payment and prompt payment of rental charges to the state government via local authorities.

In executing this research, the researcher will try to identify why billboard advertising seems to be more popular than other means of advertising in terms of product promotion in Enugu Metropolis.  Also this study will try to find out the acceptability of billboard advertising in the society.  Among other things, this study also hopes to establish the contribution of billboards to product promotion and consumption.

1.2     STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS

There has been an appreciable growth on product and services promotion activities by marketers in Nigeria, especially through advertising.  Recently, below, the line advertising, especially billboard has gained tremendous popularity.  Going round the major roads and streets in Enugu metropolis particularly strategic locations will reveal the degree of usage and number of colourful billboards of various sizes carrying advertisement promotion productions of various manufacturers.

They are located in strategic traffic points.  Also rural areas are not spread of this billboard galore.  Why this sudden increase in the use of billboards?  Could it be that billboard has acquired new potency for product promotion?  This and many were what ignited the researcher to look into the effects of billboard advertising on product promotion with specially emphasis on Enugu metropolis as a case study.

1.3     OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

          This study has among other objectives the following.

1.            To find out if billboard advertising is increasing in Enugu metropolis.

2.            To determine the effectiveness of billboard advertising on production promotion.

3.            To determine why it appeal is to prospective product consumers.

4.            To find out whether it carried or reinforces the same message of other media in the same product.

5.            To find out the contribution to environmental beauty or otherwise.

1.4        RESEARCHER QUESTIONS

For this study, the following questions are raised.

1.            Is billboard advertising on the increase in Enugu metropolis?

2.            Do Nigerian advertisers patronize billboard advertising?

3.            Do billboard advertising influence consumers in Enugu metropolis?

4.            Does billboard advertisement message reinforce electronic and print media message?

5.            Dos billboard advertising contribute to environmental beauty?

1.5        SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study brings to our knowledge the degree of influence other product promotion activities and advertising exerts on billboard advertising.

The study will also serve as a guide to manufacturers and advertisers in their day-to-day management of product marketing and will evaluate the effectiveness of product promotion via the billboard advertising.

On the other hand, this study will serve as literature/good feasibility study for prospective investors on billboard advertising sub-sectors.

1.6        HYPOTHESES

H1:    Billboard advertising is more likely to convey the advertising message better than other forms of advertising.

H0:    Billboard advertising is not more likely to convey the advertising message better than other forms of adverts.

H2:    Billboard advertising appeals more than other forms of advertising.

H0:    Billboards advertising does not appeal more than other forms of advertising.

H3:    Billboard advertising influences consumer in his choice of product or service.

H0:    Billboard advertising does not influence consumer in his choice of product or service.

H4:    Billboard advertising messages contradict other advertising messages.

H0:    Billboard advertising messages do not contradict other advertising messages.

H5:    Billboard advertising tends to be defacing the beauty of our citizens more than other forms of advertising.

H0:    Billboard advertising does not deface the beauty of our citizens more than other forms of advertising.

1.7        DEFINITION OF TERMS

Conceptual and Operations

1)       Effect:

Conceptual: This refers to the striking impression of a message a picture or an event on the individual or society. 

Operational refers to the average number of Enugu residents that the picture and wording of coca cola billboard have made striking impression on.

2)       Promotion:

Conceptual: This refers to the publishing and the advertising of products tangible or intangible. 

Operational: This is the placement of coca-cola drink in strategic place in Enugu metropolis.

3)       Product:

Conceptual: This refers to a bundle of utility offered to this consumer by a profit and – profit organization.

Operational: This refers to the average number of productions advertisement that are placed on billboard in various strategic places in Enugu metropolis.

1.8        ASSUMPTIONS

1.    Billboard advertising is not a remainder medium in Nigeria.

2.    Billboard advertising is properly packaged, beautifying the environment.

3.    It is assumed that billboard advertising has the meant of being easy to understand and repeat.

4.    It is assumed that communication is very simple with few words and big illustrations.

5.    It is also assumed that billboard advertising on the streets are seen by passers-by who can only take a brief and hold message.

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