Role Of Advertising In Motivating Consumer Brand Preference For Beverages

INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Marketing is the management process aimed at identifying, anticipating, analysis and satisfying human needs and wants through exchanges as efficiently and effectively as possible (Adirika, 1990:3)

Its concept is a philosophy of business which state that the customer want satisfaction of the economic and social justification for a firm is existence. However, no matter how a produced completely meets the requirements of the consumers, its existence has to be made know t the consumers, Hence, the need for advertising which serves as an awareness Greaten.
Equally, the multiplication of beverage (Bournvita) producing company implies that for a firm in the industry to survive, grow or improve its markets share, its must year its market share, it must year its energies towards some form of product high quality development, fair pricing, effective promotional, activities, and wide distribution network. Besides competitors, the growth of this industry creates other problems which include that by presenting a variety of choice tot he customers, the management of the company face the problem of identifying which of these varieties that exert greatest influence on consumer preference on one brand of beverage product over the other. This has led to the policy of most companies marketing department investing so heavily on advertizing as the surest means of reaching their target markets. Nigerian businessmen always depreciate the role of advertising in business because of their pursuit for quick money and profits, they often erroneously regard advertising expenditure as money wasted. This is unfortunate indeed, adverting it perhaps the most effectively way of communicating with customers and the general public. Through advertizing, a company communicates the information a consumer needs to evaluate a product or the ability of the company to offer a product or service.
Advertizing can be inform of newspaper and magazine, direct mail trade exhibitions, television, radio, catalogue, product demonstration etc.

Following the increase in the competitive nature of the market environment in Nigerian today, marry companies are found in the line of beverage product production. One of such companies who also lover a leading name in beverage market is Cadbury Nigeria Plc who builds its fame on vitality and delicious goodness of its food beverages. The extra flavour of its confectionery and the appetizing taste of its products.

The company’s operations in Nigeria were initially continued tot he selling of imported chocolate products in the major urban areas. This was before 1965 when Cadbury Nigeria Plc operated as the registered Nigerian sale office for Cadbury fry expert limited. However, the introduction of the Coco beverage, Pronto, and later the well know malt beverage BOURNVITA between 1956 and 1969 enable the company penetrate the indigenous market. The increase in turnover instified first, the local packaging of these products and subsequently the full manufacture of BOURNVITA in the company manufacture and market their products through network of wholesale distributors located in various parts of the commit.

They equally make a to of expenses as a result of carrying out promotional strategies for their product. One of such promotional mix which they make use of is advertizing which demands from the management a huge amount of money yearly. Advertizing is a group of activities involved in presenting to people message regarding a product, service or idea in a non-personal form by a identified sponsor. Its main takes is to communicate effectively so as to establish awareness if create a favourite attitude to and stimulate demand for a product or service among potential consumers. It should therefore be informative, instructive, persuasive and relevant to consumer’s needs. It should appeal to the emotional instincts in some discerning ways from similar products of the same or other companies. In the marketing of beverages, branding enhancing product identification, which in turn facilitates marketing action and demand stimulation. It helps for effective advertizing and market control. The search for this study involves investigating consumer brand recantation, brand preference, brand acceptance, and brand insistence of the brand of selected beverage, Bournvita.

Finally, the role of advertising in motivating consumers, play a major role in beverage industries. Some consumers are being moved by the nature of advertisement of a particular product irrespective of the price attached to it.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In any competitive marking environment such as ours, a marketing manager is often faced with the problems of how to determine the nature of demand for his products in a given market segment, how to determine the factors responsible for the variations in the demand pattern.
Management of Bournvita producing company in Nigeria is faced with the problem of not only identifying suitable strategies to bet their competitors but also how to determine the strength of the contributions of various components of the promotional mix variables of the purpose of stimulating demand of their product brand. This has equally led to different company’s budgetary allocation to and policy emphasis on different components of promotional mix. The pertinent question that come to mind include.

Why doe s food proportion of Bournvita consumers benefit adequately from advertising message Bournvita brand ?
Why is the large sum of money invested in advertising Bournvita product justified ?
Why does advertizing of Bournvita aroze a behaviour that would otherwise not be displayed by the consumers, thus disposing him towards advertised produced.
Specifically, it has become necessary to determine:
1. Why the consumption of Bournvita is being seriously influenced by its advertizing as against other factors (availability of the products its quality, price and positioning strategy of the product).
2. The strength of advertizing relative to these other factors in influencing the consumer to one brand of beverage over the other.
Answer to these and some other related questions constitute the central task of this research work.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Advertizing as a promotional; mix among other things at influencing, consumer of selecting a particular product or service instead of competing brand of similar product during their purchase decisions.

This study therefore, seeks to examine the market acceptance of Bournvita in Enugu metropolis with a view to establishing the extent to which consumer’s preference of Bournvita over other brand of beverage can be attributed to advertising. Therefore, the objectives of this study are:
1. To determine whether advertisement appeal or theme is the reason why consumers prefer Bournvita to other brand of beverages.
2. To identify the cause and kind of differences in consumer preference the Bournvita product under study.
3. To determine the extend to which consumption of the Bournvita product is being influenced by the advertizing.
4. To determine the strength of advertizing relative to the other factors in motivating consumer awareness of Bournvita under study.
5. To suggest ways of improving advertizing campaign strategy for beverage product marketing to be more effective.

1.4 HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION
The following hypotheses will be tested.
1. Ho: Most consumers are not aware of Bournvita product through advertizing.
Hi: Most consumers are aware o Bournvita product through advertizing.
2. Ho: Consumer brand preference for Bournvita product is not influenced by exposure to advertizing message.
Hi: Consumer brand preference for Bournvita product is influenced by exposure to advertising message.
3. Ho: There is no signification relationship between the advertizing of Bournvita and sales volume of the organisation.
Hi: There is signification relationship between the advertizing of Bournvita and sales volume of the organisation.

1.5 SIGNIFICANT THE STUDY
It is intended that the result of this study will help the Cadbury Nigeria Plc in the following ways:
1. To be in a position to make their product to meet the needs of their customers.
2. To help the consumers ascertain the quality of then product and the benefits derive in consuming the product.
3. It will facilitate the work of other people mostly researchers who many in one way or the other engage in a similar research in future.
4. The reader with also benefit form this work became it will help them in building their own study when carrying out the academic research.
5. It will expose the opportunities and threats facing the competitors and the need to affect changes so that the company can grow positively.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study is a case study of Cadbury Nigeria Plc. Due to the size and spread of the company, the study is limited only to consumers of Bournvita in Enugu metropolis.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
ADVERTISING: It is a non-personal form of communication or presentation of goods, ideas or se4rvuces conducted through paid media under clear sponsorship (Kotler P. 2nd Edition, 1987)
CONSUMER PRODUCTS: They are those products used by the final consumers that are not industrial products (Ozo 2002, P.120)

BRAND PREFERENCE: Is a situation where the consumer selects a particular product that will satisfy his needs and wants. (Journal o Consumer Research. 1982, P. 185).

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR: Is whatever the consumer does in the process of satisfying his/her needs. (Ozo 2002, P. 10)