AN ANALYSIS OF HOW CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT WITH MEDIA

IS AFFECTING THE WAY ADVERTISING IS DONE A CASE STUDY

OF PRINTER SERVOCES LTD.

BY
ALLOYS OTIENO KARUGU-BC01-0011/2008

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT

OF THE REQUIREMNT FOR THE FINAL YEAR RESEARCH PROJECT
OF THE BACHELOR OF COMMERCE DEGREE PROGRAMME
KCA UNIVERSITY

February 2009
 CHAPTER 1

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Iris Mayne defines Advertising as an element of the promotional mix and one of the
most universal and pervasive channels of communication. It can be defined as a non
personal Communication from an Identified Sponsor Using Mass Media. Advertising is
about grabbing the attention of as many people as possible with a view to selling them
some thing. The advertisers present their wares in as many different ways as possible.

Media is a component of the communication channel used to transmit an advertisement

of communication, as billboards, radio, television, newspapers, magazines, internet, and
mobile phones etc that reach or influence people in an attempt to persuade them to buy
goods or services.
Advertising as we know it to day began when society began to be industrialized. Prior to
that time news papers aimed their advertising at the wealthy people alone. Products like
wigs, books, and concert tickets were advertised in news papers which were left in coffee
houses for customers to read (Dyer, op.cit.) This in part created the conditions for to
day’s bombardment. It helped people to understand the genre. In a ‘free market’ economy
like our own, advertising is highly necessary, as the makers of products compete with
each other for customers.

The post- war economic boom which began in the 1950s saw a huge in crease in
advertising activity. Mass production of goods was taking place, there was a market for
the goods and there was a new out let for the advertisers, with the advent of commercial
television. Unemployment was low, at about three per cent. The working class youth
were leaving school at the age of 15 and for the first time they had money in their pockets
to spend. The cult of youth was about to begin. And TV be came an affordable
commodity.
By 1982 it was found that the average person in the US spent between 18,000 and 20,
000 hours in a year watching television, and just five hours a year reading a good book
(Sohn,1982) stated that the society is likely to be exposed to at least twenty
advertisements in an hour on the commercial channels. When it comes to moving towards
new types of media, research conducted by Mintel (2008) showed that there is a tendency
towards convergence, with a high desire of staying connected.
Market intelligence social networks and mobile phones are just two examples of new
types of media used by people. Mintel (2008) also revealed that a third of social
networking users would switch if advertising became intolerable partly because only 13%
of people use them with the intention of buying something, a vast majority of 59% use
them to interact with old friends and colleagues.
How people engage with media is important for advertisers as they are looking for
accountability for their communication budget as increasing consumer connection with
media equates to increasing consumer connection with advertising, when planned
correctly. Return on Investment (ROI) has become increasingly important, media
planners want assurance of what they are getting from the advertising before they buy it.
 1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Due to the evolution of media and fragmentation of it, reaching people through
advertising has become increasingly difficult and challenging. Both marketing
professionals and advertising agencies recognize that consumers are now in the driver’s
seat regarding choice of media channels. No longer are the traditional metrics, such as
reach and frequency, enough in selecting media to target messages to create buyers, in
addition to loyal, and perhaps life-long, customers.
Consumer Engagement is one response advertising and marketing
professionals have suggested as an antidote to these changing times.

The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), the American Association

of Advertising Agencies (AAAA), and the Association of National
Advertisers (ANA), have taken on the challenge of defining this
concept, as well as developing metrics to better grasp the importance
and relevance of the emotional connection to buyer behavior as
delivered through advertising. When it comes to commercial broadcasting, the
audience can choose what they want to view; it is their business to draw conclusions as to
what is relevant to them. Television as a whole is not the only source of information or
entertainment any longer. With any other medium, consumers look away or ignore
messages that simply bore them going from one type of media to the other.
Plainly put, when there is nothing on television of interest, consumers read their
newspapers, flick through a magazine, browse the internet using mobile phones or visit
cyber cafes, meet friends, or do anything that takes their fancy.

It is hard for advertisers to deliver the right message, to the right person at the right time
because context is now as important as the content (Pate man, 1983), given the flood of
choices and existence of so many distractions in our day to day lives. It is difficult to send
across a message that is both engaging and memorable. The study therefore seeks to
identify how consumer engagement with media is affecting the way advertising is done.
 1.3) OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Overall aim of the research is to examine how current involvement and engagement with
media could change the way advertising should be planned and implemented. This was
broken into the following specific objectives.

6 To investigate what people expect from media and advertising;

7 To explore social interaction surrounding advertising by exploring how and when
people discuss what they have seen or experienced/ to establish how consumer
engage with adverts,
8 Look into what methods advertising agencies use in order to engage customers
and how effective they are.

1.4) RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The research questions will entail.
1. What do people expect from advertising?
2. What is the social interaction surrounding advertising? / How does the consumer
engage with the media?
3. What are the methods advertising agencies use in order to engage customers and
how effective are they?

1.5) RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Shimp established likeability as an important causal mediator of the
effect that advertising has on brand preference. Biel and Bridgwater
suggested that likeability does have a persuasive effect, as it can
directly affect feelings towards a brand, “when we like the advertising,
we are more inclined to like the brand as well. It is just a form of
traditional emotional conditioning” (Fam & Waller, 2004).
One study, however, determined that no correlation exists between
likeability and effectiveness in the marketplace, although the analysis
did establish a correlation between persuasion scores and empirically
conclusive effectiveness. Thorson (1991) concluded that “ad likeability
is an important determinant of advertising impact, regardless of the
involvement level of the product or the viewing situation.” There are
also two distinct dimensions to ad liking—emotional and cognitive—
and it differs from the concept of brand liking. Thorson proposed that
ad liking has the capability to predict brand attitude beyond prior
brand conditioning. The implication is that ad liking represents and
important determinant of impact, which is independent of the intrinsic
interest of the category. The inference was that viewers would pay
more attention to the ads they prefer.
1.6) SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research is structured to help marketers in the advertising and promotions consulting
firms or rather help those in the marketing department in organizations to understand
their target audience and develop effective message easy and intriguing to encode and use
the most appropriate media that will solicit its consumers to give productive feedback
back to the firm.

1.7) JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher initially became interested in this topic because of its unique combination
of marketing management strategies and the psychological theory it is based on. This is
especially vital given the current importance and emphases of ROI in relation to
advertising expenditure. One thing is certain though, the landscape and players are
changing and it is the researcher’s desire to be right at the forefront. The study is being
undertaken to see that the right message is communicated at the right time, to the right
people, at the right place, using the desired channel at a profitable cost.
1.8) SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The researcher intend to use focus groups of a maximum of 6 people, semi structured
interviews using open ended questions and lastly a non probability sampling technique.
1.9) CONCEPTUAL FRAME WORK
The study will concentrate on the following dependent and independent variables
Dependent variables
9 media
10 consumer behavior/grouping
11 Advertising

Independent variables
12 Communities/networks
13 Participatory culture
14 Media context
15 media audience
16 Media message,
17 Transmedia storytelling

REFERENCE
Dictionary.com website:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/consumer
Bobby J. Calder und Edward C. Malthouse , Media Engagement