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THE EFFECT OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING IN PRODUCT PROMOTION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Advertising has grown increasingly popular as an object 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 in product and service marketing.  Billboard advertising has assumed a wider and prominent position in product promotion in recent times in Nigeria. Despite electronic media, billboard advertising got product promotion on the increase.

This new discovery in product promotion has not only given rise to advertising agencies that specialized only in billboard advertising, and also a strong association of billboard advertising 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 provision 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 exercise of 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 evidence increase in billboard advertising under sources the effectiveness of billboard in project promotion.  Billboards ensure frequent and repeated exposure to the advertisement.  Billboards are usually located at points with higher vehicular 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 that 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 servicing as a catalyst for buyer who buy io impulse.  The greatest problems encountered by advertisers and their agencies with regard to billboard are site monitoring.  Monitoring is usually difficult and so when posters get torn or washed out, it takes a while to discover and repost.  This is because the sites are usually scattered around very far geographical locations.

The posters used on the boards are usually tedious to print and post especially when the number of sites to be covered are too many.  In other 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-by’s 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 to environmental aesthetic and enduring feature of landscape of towns, in the country.  Although the voice of the street vendor in Nigeria grows fainter with each passing year, it is still possible to hear the mournful call and tinkling bell of the old clothes and junk man, the call of the itinerant fruit peddler with his pushcart, or the street corner vendor of hot chestnuts.  And what will a football game be without the kids hawking peanut and soft drinks? Much the same call in a different language, echoed in the street.

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

Winstan Fletch, (1979), identifies the following determinant 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 more boards in a given area, the greater the problem of dotter, many authorities regulate the sitting of boards as to prevent their indiscriminate location poster come in standard sizes referred to as sheets.  The dimensions of a single 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 board or bulletin boards, which are hand-painted (instead of printed posters) and typical sizes are 14 feet by 48 feet.  Posters sited 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 tend to have.

Outdoor advertising has become a major advertising firms in Enugu metropolis and an indispensable source of revenue for Enugu State Government.  While advertisers buy space in Newspapers and magazines, for outdoor they rent sites.  In Enugu metropolis, renting a site centers on an advertiser the right of having his poster displayed on the site.  To do this, advertiser or his agency will retain an outdoor advertising company.  The advertising companies will have to usually built and acquire a particular site it wants or chooses from the ones the billboard company supplies.  It pays the outdoor agency for the production of the posters as well as rental fee for the sites.  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 operation is very delicate task, since in most cases, 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 so that they can use the billboard firm for their campaign.  Other task include monitoring of sites to ensure that posters are in good order and properly posted, invoicing agencies for sites created and posted, ensuring prompt payments      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 in 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 street in Enugu metropolis particularly strategic location will reveal the degree of usage ad number of colourful billboard of various sizes carrying advertisement promotion products of various manufactures.

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

1.3     OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study has among other objective the following.

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

2.        To determine the effectiveness of billboard advertising in product promotion.

3.        To determine why it appeals to prospective product consumers.

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

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

1.4     RESEARCH 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.        Does 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 promotion via the billboard advertising.  On the other hand, this study will serve as literature/good feasibility study for prospective investors in 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 advertising.

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

H0:    Billboard 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 message contradicts other advertisings messages.

H0:    Billboard advertising message does not contradict other advertising messages.

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

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

1.7     DEFINITION OF TERMS

Conceptual and operational:

1.        Effect:     

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

Operational:     This 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 is the publishing and advertising of product tangible or intangible.

Operational:     This is the placement of board – Coca Cola drink in strategic places in Enugu metropolis.

3.     Product:  

Conceptual:      This refers to a bundle of utility offered to the consumer by a profit and non-profit organization.

Operational:     This refers to the average number of product 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 if properly packaged, beautifies the environment.

3. &

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