CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Much of the early history of advertising in Nigeria largely centers on the

activities of the offshoots of multinationals such as Unilever and its advertising

agency LINATS. (Ozoh 2001). A more vigorous industry emerged much later with

first major impetus being provided by the Nigeria Enterprise Promotion Decree of

1972 otherwise known as Indigenization decree. The decree had provided for

advertising as a wholly business with exclusive ownership reserved for Nigeria.

Nigerians were suddenly thrust into the position of major drivers in the industry even

when they were not ready to assume such post.

But the incipient signs of the emergent activism and vitality that were later to

characterize advertising were evident of the Association of Advertising Practitioners

of Nigeria (AAPN). The association struggled relentlessly over the years raising the

sensitivity of the public and the government to the problems and interest of the

advertising industry. The struggles of the AAPN (which was an Umbrella organization

of the advertising agencies in Nigeria) were to pay off in 1988 when government

accorded legislative recognition to the profession. In that year government

promulgated a decree now tagged Decree 55 of 1988. The decree established the

advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) and gave it the following

powers and functions;

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Determining who advertising practitioners are.

Determining what standards of knowledge are to be attained by persons seeking to

become registered as members of the advertising professions and reviewing these

standards from time to time.

Securing in accordance with the provision of the decree the establishment and

maintenance of the register of practitioners and the publication from time to time of

the list of the persons.

Regulating and controlling the practice of advertising in all its aspects and

ramifications.

Conducting examination in the profession and awarding certificates or diploma to

successful candidates when appropriate and for such purpose the council shall

prescribe fee to be paid in respect thereof.

With the coming of APCON advertising assumed full fledged professional

status. The profession is usually characterized by a defined body of knowledge and

skill which its members must acquire a formal mode of admission and licensing before

one could become a member of the profession. Advertising has by virtue of decree 55

acquired these characteristics. Advertising has all over the years assumed a powerful

communication force highly visible and one of the most important tools of marketing

communication that helps to promote sale of products services ideas and images etc.

Advertisements are seen in newspapers magazines on televisions and internet and are

heard on radio.

The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) (1993p.2)

defined advertising as “a form of communication through media about products

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services or ideas paid for by an identified sponsor.” Bovee and Arens (1992p.7 )

defined advertising as “ non-personal communication of information usually about

products (goods and services) or ideas by an identified sponsor through various

media.” Ulanoff (1977p.17) also defines advertising as “a tool of marketing for

communication of ideas and information or time on the media or uses another

communication vehicle to carry its messages and its openly identifies the advertiser

and his relationship to sales effort.”

All these explains advertising as a non-personal messages meaning there is no

personal interaction between the advertiser and the audience expect in the case

personal selling where there is face-to-face presentation and promotion of the product

or services by the sales person. It is usually delivered through a media and often

viewed as the intrusion. It is also paid for by an identified sponsor. This reflects the

fact that the space or time for an advertising messages generally must be brought by a

sponsor. Advertising plays a vital role not only to the agencies that practice it but to

the manufacturers media and customers as well. In media for example advertising

constitutes a source of income. Newspaper as a rule receive two third of their revenue

from adverts. The survival of radio television magazines and other channels of mass

communication without advertisements is better imagined than real. More so one best

appreciates the beauty elegance and glamour which advertisement add to the

entertainment nature of the media when we imagine the absence of such interline to

promote products and services during programmers‟ on radio and television. As for

consumers advertising is educational; people learn about new products and services or

improvements in existing ones through advertising. In addition most advertisements

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help in producing psychological effects and can help in changing only mental states of

audiences and predispose them towards the purchase of the advertised products and

services. From the advertising point of view Doghuje (1985p.19) says “advertising is

a marketing tool whose sole aim is to build preferences for advertised brands or

services”. Advertising is best at creating initial awareness of a product or services

building an image and reinforcing existing impressions consumers have of a brand. It

also stimulates demands strengthens other promotion mix elements develops brand

preference cut costs and serves as competitive weapons for marketers. It is on this

premise that organizations are rapidly learning that an efficient and effective

communication with target audience can be the difference between marketing success

or failure. Marketers are keenly interested in new ways of effectively communicating

with consumers especially through advertising. They are more concerned with

developing tactics and strategies of marketing and advertising the products and

services to the consumers.

Television advertising originally stemmed from radio advertising. Initial

(Groberman 2011) Radio campaigns were simply utilized as a means of selling radios

and assortment of other commonly used products. However when advertisers begin to

realize that this could be an effective means of communicating with the audience

throughout the day they begin to look for new and more innovative ways to gain

public attention and aim it towards a given product. More than any other point 1948

proved to be the year television advertising truly began to take center stage. This

worked out for a number of reasons including the country coming of World war II and

an assortment of other social factor coupled with there finally begin enough television

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sets for a given message to be effectively delivered. Finally after alot of researches

and even more surveys of what the public sort from their television set marketers

moved in the first advertising angel revolved around making the titles of given shows

features the name or certain products or products lines. Among the most prominent

examples of this included; Call gate comedy hour and Coke time. Eventually as a

result of the increased popularity of television companies began to realize that a more

profitable alternative to the one- product-per-show advertising method that they were

employing had to exist. It wasn‟t until NBC executive Sylvester L Weaver did the

public first began to get a taste of television advertising as we recognize it today.

Weaver and an innovator introduced a new concept of television advertising in which

sponsors will purchase blocks of time during a show so as to allow multiple sponsors

for any show. It relived agencies of all the cost related to producing a show. By 1969

things became stable and advertising industries grew stronger.

Mobile telephone network( MTN) South Africa was launched in 1994 an it‟s

the largest cellular network operators operating in countries in Africa and the middle-

east. As at the end of December 2006 MTN records more than 40million subscribers

across its operations. Karel Punnor was the founding father of MTN South Africa. The

early days in South Africa entails a great deal of handwork. The company was just

focused on rolling out the networks ensuring there was enough capacity for the

subscriber growth in their first year of business voice mail and SMS were later added.

According to tele-geographics global communication database (2000) MTN was

founded in Nigeria on November 82000 as a private company. It secured license to

operate digital on August 23 2001. MTN emerged as the first to make a successful

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call on its GSM network in the new dispensation. Thereafter the country launched full

commercial operations beginning in Lagos Abuja and Port-Harcourt. MTN

advertising activities commenced before its operation. They virtually painted the

streets of Lagos and Abuja Yellow its brand color of advertising billboards and tee-

shirts exhibited the advert. MTN Nigeria advertising programme captured the mood in

August (2001) with its first television advertising “rising sun”. The advert shows a

nation waking up to a new day with the sun rising brightly into a beautiful sky. They

indeed connected Nigerians to themselves in a new day. “Achieve what you want

achieve” since launched in August 2001 MTN has steadily deployed its services

across Nigeria. And a growing number of high ways across Nigeria and the federal

capital territory Abuja. Many of these villages and communities are being connected to

the world of telecommunication for the first time ever.

The company also subsist on the core brand values of leadership relationship

integrity innovation and “can do” it prides itself on its ability to make the impossible

possible connecting people with friends family and opportunities. The bond of

friendship have got stronger. The ties of family have got closer older friends have

been nurtured. New relationships have been created Nigerians are connected to new

hopes; aspirations and better life opportunities are sourced all as a result of the power

of communication.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

One major fact is that we are being bombarded with advertisement messages

day-in-day -out from all imaginable media. The average consumer is exposed to a very

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large number of advertisements every day particularly the urban and semi-urban

population. Advertising has been perceived as a veritable medium of stimulating

motivation and influencing the purchase and other behavioral response of their

prospective customers. The potency of advertising in product promotion cannot be

over emphasized. Though MTN products like MTN pay-Go MTN Share and Sell

MTN talk-On MTN magic-Number MTN call-Back MTN mobile Money MTN

Friends & Family MTN Pulse MTN Happy hour MTN TruTalk etc. are made known

to their customers through advertising there are still some problems affecting

customers‟ awareness of their products.

Though there are other media through which MTN advertises its products

television advertising is of more important in MTN advertising. Although there are

certain problems encountered by MTN in advertising its products in Enugu metropolis;

such as the appropriate time to reach the target audience at the same time the problem

of which television houses within Enugu metropolis watch most the quality and

clarity of messages that will be best understood by MTN customers or perspective

customers. Despite all the benefits derivable from sales promotion and the need to

keep up with stiff competition in the market place many organizations especially in

the developing countries still fail to accept sales promotion as a marketing tool to be

reckoned with?

The question the researcher seeks to address is what is the actual impact of

television advertising of MTN products on residents of Enugu metropolis concerning

numerous problems confronting television advertising production?

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1.3 Objectives of the Study

The purpose of carrying out this research includes the following;

1. To find out if the residents of Enugu metropolis have access to television.

2. To determine the frequency of exposure of residents of Enugu to MTN advert

messages on television.

3. To examine the impact of MTN television advertisements on residents of

Enugu metropolis.

1.4 Research Questions

1. Do the residents of Enugu metropolis have access to television?

2. What is the frequency of exposure of residents of Enugu metropolis to MTN

adverts on television?

3. What is the impact of MTN television advertisements on residents of Enugu

metropolis?

1.5 Research Hypothesis

H1: There is significant difference between residents of Enugu metropolis who watch

MTN television adverts and those who do not.

1.6 Scope of the Study

This study intends to cover the entire MTN Company in Enugu and its

environs. In a nutshell the study is delimited to only identifying the impact of

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Television advertising even though advertising consist of promotion personal selling

sales promotion and public relation.

It therefore cost intensive to cover all these fields of study. The research therefore is

to investigate the relevance of television advertisement in the promotion of sales from

the staff and top management of MTN Company in some restricting Enugu metropolis.

1.7 Significance of the Study.

Economically the finding will be beneficial to MTN Company by providing

feedback a frame work which they will use to measure the advertising effectiveness

especially in the area of communication. It will also give them a better understand and

knowledge of advertising activities as a necessary tool for marketing productivity.

To the public‟s it will get them more exposed to the advert messages that they

will get to know more about the products they are buying and the benefits and

compare the products with other related ones.

To advertisers who have advertising as their profession it will give them more details

about the company studied in this research and enable them to know when and how to

reach the public and how best to make a good living as advertisers.

Finally this research will provide on in depth knowledge to researchers and

readers alike.

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1.8 Operational Definition of Terms.

Impact: Is the powerful effects or influence MTN has on its subscribers.

Advertising: it is the effort of MTN Nigeria to present and promote the sales

of its products through the media.

Products: they are goods and services provided by MTN such as MTN

callback MTN talk-on MTN mobile money etc.

Television: it is an electronic medium through which information about the

products and services of MTN are transmitted to the target audience

heterogeneously.

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