ADVERTISERS PREFERENCES OF MEDIA CHANNEL PROBLEMS, CHOICE, AND REASONS (A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DAILY SUN

NEWSPAPER AND NEWSWATCH

MAGAZINE)

ABSTRACT

This research is on Advertisers Preferences of Media Channels, Problems, Choice and Reasons (A Comparative Study of Daily Sun Newspaper and Newswatch Magazine). This study is designed to find out the level of preferences of different advertisers towards Daily Sun Newspaper and Newswatch Magazine. This study is divided into five chapters in order to present a coherent work. Chapter one focuses on background of study, Statement of Problem, Purpose of Study. Chapter two focuses on Literature Review and Theoretical Framework. Chapter three focuses on Research Methodology, method and Procedures used in the study. Chapter four deals on Data Presentation and Analysis, while chapter five deals on Summary, Conclusion and Recommendations. What the researcher has in mind is to find out the best channel for advertising. The study proved that Daily Sun Newspaper is more effective in advertising than Newswatch Magazine.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of Study

        An advertiser can be defined as a person, organization or company that places advertisements in order to target audience or customers. The entire business of a commercial organization or company starts with advertising. That is to say that the rise and fall of the profit of a company depends solely on the expenditure incurred by the advertiser.

A form of marketing communication used to persuade an audience to take or continue some actions, usually with respect to a commercial offering, or political or ideological support.

In Latin, “ad vertere” means to “to turn toward”. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful.

According to Wikipedia Atom Feed, Advertising is the communication relayed from companies to persuade an audience to purchase their products this communication is usually through various form of paid media like TV and radio commercials, print adverts, bill boards and more recently, product placement.

Adverts are placed where advertisers believe they will reach the largest, most relevant audience.

Commercial business use advertising to drive the consumption of their product, while non-profit organization may place adverts to raise awareness or encourage a change in behavior or perception.

Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various old media including mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television advertisement, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail, or new media such as blogs, websites or text messages.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through “branding” which involves associating a product name or image with certain qualities in the minds of consumers.

Non commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include, political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Non-profit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a Public Service Announcement (PSA).

According to Jefkins (1998-187) defines advertising media as that which supplies the vehicles for advertising message, carrying them to the right readers, viewers, listeners or passers by. It may also be referred to as the vehicles that propel the messages to where they are needed”.

Advertising media selection is the process of choosing the most cost – effective media for advertising to achieve the required coverage and number of expures in a target audience.

Media selection is typically measured on two dimensions: frequency and spread.

In frequency, it is insufficient for a target audience member to have just one “Opportunity To See (OTS)” the advertisement. In traditional media, around five OTS are believed or required for a reasonable impact. Some research shows that advertisements require significant exposure to consumers before they can even register.

Those viewers who receive fewer OTS are insufficiently motivated, and extra advertising is wasted on those who receive more.

The major steps in media selection as:-

Deciding on reach, frequency and impact, secondly, choosing among major media types. Thirdly, Decoding on media timing.

The advertiser decides on the reach and frequency of the media channel he is about to choose.

He further considers the percentage of people in the target audience who are exposed to the advertising campaign during a given period of time. Frequency refers to how many times the average person in the target market is exposed to the message. Media impact involves the qualitative value.

The advertiser must decide on how to schedule the advertising over the course of the year. There are different types of media channels open to the advertisers.

They are the Electronic or Broadcasting Media, which includes the radio and television.

According to Neli Kokemuller, magazines and newspapers are important print media used by companies to deliver advertising messages. They share similarities as print media, the strengths and weaknesses of each medium are distinct.

Newspapers tend to offer opportunities for the broadcast range of advertisers, but magazines have strengths in helping you connect with a specific audience.

Not minding these few merits they still have their demerit which is now left for the advertisers to determine.

Advertisers some times choose among magazines and newspaper based on their strength, weakness, lead times, creativity, life span and cost effectiveness.

Magazines are typically read by highly interested audiences because there are specific magazines for various topics. It allows you to reach an audience that has higher potential for persuasion if your products relate closely to the topic of the publication magazines are however more costly than newspapers.

Newspapers on the other hand offer affordable advert rates which benefits small businesses on a tight budget.

However, despite the fact that newspapers offer color, newspaper design it isn’t nearly as captivating it diminishes as large copy runs. They are useful when reaching a broad geographic market, but they are limited if you have a more specific demographic market.

Newspapers are highly advantageous on targeting geographic market segments. Its publications include local, regional and national newspapers. The lead time of a newspaper is short which an advantage.

However, magazine has narrow audience, long-lead time and more expensive. Though they are more creative and have longer life than newspaper.

1.2  Statement of problem

        Advertising play an important role in persuading thee target audience to purchase a companies products. That is why we say that the rise and fall of advertising business solely depend on the expenditure incurred by advertiser.

As a result of this the researcher is bent on finding some of the problems encountered by the advertisers while choosing the different media of their choices.

        This study therefore is zeroed down to Daily Sun newspaper and Newswatch magazine. The advertisers are faced with the challenges of choosing the between frequency of publication, their life span and cost of effectiveness which will enable them choose the most effective for their advertisement.    

1.3  Objectives of the Study

The primary aim of this study to enable the researcher determine the most effective media channels of advertisement.

The researcher at the end of this study will be able to bring out the strength and weakness of newspaper and magazine advertisement and give the advertiser the privilege of choosing the media of the choice. 

1.4  Research Question

1)          Is Daily Sun and Newswatch magazine effective for advertising?

2)          Is the cost of advertising in Daily Sun and Newswatch magazine affordable?

3)          Do Daily Sun and Newswatch magazine reach maximum number of people?

4)          Is Daily Sun and Newswatch magazine perfect for advertisement?

1.5  Significance of the Study

        This study will help advertisers and prospective advertisers to determine the best channels to be adopted why advertising for their various companies.

It will also help to elaborate more on the problems that advertisers face why choosing a channel of their choice.

Furthermore, it will also serve as a literature or reference material one can consult in this area of study if the need arises.

1.6  Scope of Study    

        Determining the media channels preferred by different advertisers for there different advertisement is a very big task. This study in order to be conclusive in its facts finding zeroed it down to Daily Sun Newspaper and Newswatch Magazine using few advertisers in Oko.

1.7  Limitation of Study

There are certain factors or problems encountered by the researcher during the process of finding and collection of data. There were some logistics problems, some respondent were uncooperative with some questionnaire unreturned and unanswered.

1.8  Definition of Terms

        Some terminologies in this work would be defined for the purpose of understanding properly what the researcher means.

Those terms include:

1.        Advertising: “Advertising is the non personal communication of information usually paid for and usually persuasive in nature about products, service or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media” (Bovee, 1992:7).

2.        Advertisers: A person organization or company that places advertisements in order to target customers.

3.        Newspaper: A printed publication (usually issued daily or weekly) consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, feature articles, advertisements and correspondence.

4.        Magazine: A periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, typically covering a particular subject or area of interest. The paper usually have glossy papers.

5.        Media channel: specific medium used in reaching intended audience, such as newspapers, radio station, television stations etc.

6.        Effectiveness: The degree to which something is successful in producing a desired result success.

7.        Preferences: A greater liking for one alternative over another or others.

8.        Customer: An individual or business that purchases goods or services produced by a business, since it is the customer who pays for supply and creates demand.

9.        Communication: Two way process of reaching mutual understanding in which participant not exchange (encode-decode) information, news ideas and feeling but also create and share meaning.

10.    Consumption: The process in which the substance of a thing is completely destroyed, used up or incorporated or transformed into something else. Consumption of good and services is the amount of them used in a particular time period.

11.    Branding: The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumer’s mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and retains loyal customers.

12.    Frequency:  the number of time that an event occurs within a given period.

13.    Market segment: the process of defining and subdividing a large homogenous market into clearly identifiable segments having similar needs, wants, or demands characteristics.