THE IMPACT OF TELEVISION ADVERTISING ON NURSING MOTHERS

ABSTRACT

The impact of Television advertisements on Nursing Mothers cannot be over-emphasized.

The objectives of this research are to investigate if television is actually the most effective media of advertisement as many theorists have asserted and to determine whether baby product commercials they see on television could influence the buying habits of the nursing mothers.

In this study, the work has been grouped into the following sections.

Chapter one deals with the introduction, which exposes the history of advertising in the world and in the country.  It also deals with research problems, objectives, significance, definitions of terms, and limitations of the study.

In other words, chapter two covers the extensive review of related literature done by the researcher. This has to do with the views of experts and authors concerning the issue at stake.

Furthermore, chapter three deals with the research method, design population, sample, measuring instruments, data collection, data analysis and expected results.

The population was based on the urban and rural dwellers in Nsukka.

In chapter four, data collected through oral interviews and questionnaires were analyzed using percentage (%) method, tables were used in presenting the data.

Finally, chapter five deals with summary based on findings.  Also recommendations were made such that would be helpful to the manufacturers and advertisers of baby products.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Advertising is one of the oldest and most popular tools used in the marketing of goods and services.  The origin of advertising could be traced back to ancient times when carvings called pictographs were found on walls in places like Egypt, Spain and China to advertise goods and services.

Modern advertising in Nigeria came through the colonial masters and today in the country, advertising has assumed a  major significance in the business circle.  Advertising has helped in creating markets for various product brands by arousing the interest of consumers towards a particular product.

Keith Cowin et al (1975), said that advertising has a cumulative effect on moulding the behaviour of the individual consumers.1

The effect of advertising on the national economy is overwhelming.  Alai Stevenson, a one time United States secretary of State said that, American standard of living is the imaginative genius of advertising whi8ch not only creates and sharpens demand, but also by its impact on the competitive process, stimulates the ever-increasing quest for improvement in the quality of products.

As a recognized tool of marketing communication, advertising is mutually related to the mass media, (television, radio, newspapers and magazines) in order to reach a mass audience at low cost   apart from reaching many people rapidly at low cost, intensive advertising through the mass media also has the ability of turning prospects into consumers in large number and at high speeds.  Probably that was shy Ezigbo (1991) said that in a mass production and high consumption economy, advertising has the greatest opportunity and the greatest responsibility for findings customers.

Advertising according to S. W. John (1982) is “any paid form of non-person presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor”.4  Put in another form, advertising is a method of delivering a sponsor message through an impersonal medium, to a mass audience, for the purpose of winning approval, influencing attitudes and increasing sales.  It, therefore, becomes necessary for traders and people offering various goods and services to make their offers more interesting than that of the next person.  They have to try and differentiate their goods and services to reflect an advantage.  As competition increased, so do advertising.