ADVERTISING AS A STRATEGIC INSTRUMENT IN THE MARKETING OF COMMUNICATION SERVICE

1.1 Introduction

Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor. Advertising promote social messages and life style through illustrating the position of ideal consumer and stimulate social action toward purchase of that product. The overall process of marketing communication strategy is getting different gradually as we proceed towards the new age business and integrated work environment. In such situation of emerging new standards of business under global effects creating an effective marketing communication strategy has become more complex and witty job. The potential intervention of internet across all communication processes has made this job even more challenging.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

The world has become a global village as propounded by Marshal Maduban with tele-communications being a key player (Nigeriabusinessinfo, 2021) and (Okwunna, ed. 2002:225). A major breakthrough is the Wireless Global System for Mobile Communications (MTN). MTN started in Nigeria in 1886, although in a faulty foundation because the colonial administration then was und in promoting administrative functions than the socio-economic development of the country.

The sector was grossly underdeveloped before it was deregulated under the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida in 1992 with the establishment of a regulatory body, the Nigeria communications commission (NCC). The total number of telephones lines at independence in 1960 was only 18,724 for a population estimated at about 40 million, meaning a teledensity of 0.5 Telephone per 1000 people.

Between 1960 and 1985, the MTNs sector consisted of the department of post and MTN (NET) limited in charge of the external MTNs services. The installed switching capacity at the end of 1985 was about 200,000 lines as against the target of 460,000. Telephone penetration remained poor equalizing telephone line to 100 inhabitants recommended by International MTNs Union (ITU) for developing countries.

In January 1985, the Post and MTNs was split into postal and MTN Department Division then later was merged with NET to form Nigeria MTN Limited (NITEL), with the motive to harmonize the planning and co-ordination of the internal and external MTN services. NITEL had a monopoly on the sector, and was synonymous with epileptic services and bad management. By the beginning of 1999, there were roughly 500,000 lines available for a population of around 120 million Nigerians. According of Sylvester Ebhodaghe in Guardian July 16, 2002, before Zain (formerly Econcet /Vmobile) and MTN arrived on the scene, there were less half a million phone lines to about 120 million Nigerians.

In other words, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians were phone- starred” from May 2000, the President Olusegun Obasanjo. S. administration swung to gear to make a complete deregulation a reality by setting in motion the privatization of NITEL. This has further led to expansion in connectivity through private investment and entry of new private operators, hence, there is improved service quality, expansion in rural access and more affordable tariffs, due to competition Sylvester Ebhedaghe in Guardian July 23 2001 says that “before introduction of MTN, despite NITEL being the only service provider that had touched different parts of the country, some state headquarters could not boast of NITEL facilities penetration. In order to inadequalise the inadequacies speedily for Nigerians to participate in the on-going global digital revolution, the technology of wireless had to be adopted.

On 9 February 2002, one national operator and two private companies MTN and Zain were granted license by NCC to operate a digital mobile MTN Network in Nigeria . The license fee was US $200 million. They first launched their services in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, one year after the introduction of MTN, over one million lines were provided. Also, on August 12, 2002, NCC granted another license for second national operator (SNO) to Globacom at US 200 million. The motive is to create an alternative network to the government owned NITEL because of its poor service. The Act granted more powers to the NCC thereby reducing the role of the minister for communication to policy making. The Act grants an almost absolute independence to NCC in making industry regulations.

However, as at now over 5.5million Nigeria have access to MTN phones. There are now more mobile phone subscribers than fixed lines users. At present, a wide range of MTN services are provided in the country telephony, telex, cellular mobile, radio trunking services, maritime mobile services, voice cast press receipt, data communications, shipshere, gentex (extension of telex terminal to rural areas), value added services and e cetera.

Enugu State has greatly absorbed mobile communication exchange even in less than one than one year its introduction. A big business to say, it has become part and parcel of the people, and has led to a quicker development and civilization. The first two establishment networks MTN and Zain are in Kin competition, therefore, each service provider through advertising tricks to create acceptance for their product by constantly establishing their brand in the mind’s eye of audience.

Marketing communication plays an important and vital role in company’s marketing efforts. In broader sense, it can be described as all the pieces of information into the form of messages and media a company’s deploy to communicate with the market. The components include advertising, direct marketing, branding, packaging, internet, printed materials, PR activities, sales presentations, sponsorships, trade show appearances and the like. The major objectives of marketing communication include creating and sustaining demand and preference for the product and finally contributing to mitigating the sales cycle.

Therefore, in MTN Communication Centre Enugu State where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Advertising as a Strategic Instrument in the Marketing of Communication Service.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that advertising as a business promotional tool has been badly neglected in Nigerian industries as most managers think their products can survive without it. Even the few companies that advertise do not see reasons to study how the audience perceives their products, their acceptance or rejection and the reason for such attitude, since MTN is a recent development in Enugu State, there is a need to study how the product is behaving in the market. This will help the companies to curb any negative effect before it gets ripe.

The work is directed to respondents in Enugu State to find out their disposition towards MTN products advertisement. Before the introduction of MTN Enugu State depended on NITEL for their telephone exchange, but it was surrounded with epileptic services. The first two established networks are seriously striving for customers through advertising.

This therefore poses a problem and the researcher attempt to use the questionnaire to solve this problem by analyzing the response of the respondents. This will help to make a recommendation.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to examine the Advertising as a Strategic Instrument in the Marketing of Communication Service using MTN Communication Centre Enugu State as a case study. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To evaluate the public perception and attitude towards MTN products advertisements.
2. To evaluate the impact of advertising in the sale of MTN products.
3. To recommend ways to increase sale through advertising.
4. To examine the impact of advertising in changing people’s perception.
5. To validate the power that advertising has over consumers’ psychology and how it exploits the consumer behaviour.
6. To correct the negative impression some people have about advertising.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Are citizens in Enugu State exposes to MTN product advertisements?
• Does advertising of MTN product stimulate its patronage?
• Does MTN product has an edge over the terms of acceptance patronage and reliability?
• What is the frequency of those advertisements?
• What is the attitude of Enugu State respondents towards MTN product?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: Advertising of MTN product does not have influence on public perception and attitude towards MTN products.
• H1: Advertising of MTN products have influence on public perception and attitude toward MTN products.

Hypothesis Two

• H0: Advertising cannot induce public preference of MTN products MTN.
• H1: Advertising can induce public preference of MTN products.

Hypothesis Three

• H0: Advertising will not have relationship with other elements of promotion and marketing in changing public perception and attitude.
• H1: Advertising will have relationship with other elements of promotion and marketing in changing public perception and attitude.

Hypothesis Four

• H0: Advertising does not have relationship with public perception and attitudes towards a product.
• H1: Advertising has relationship with public perception and attitudes towards a product.

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1.7 Significance of Study

This research would be of benefit to business organizations especially MTN industries. It would enable them to know how consumers feel about their products and also to create awareness of the role of advertising in developing perfect brand image. The research would also be useful to the government, advertising agencies, consumers and advertiser in all ramifications.

Academically, it would also benefit students of mass communication, business administration, marketing and other similar disciplines that may carry out similar research, and the result of the work shall highlight considerably the persuasive quality of advertising on consumers’ perception and attitude to MTN product, and how it helps to create brand awareness.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on Advertising as a Strategic Instrument in the Marketing of Communication Service using MTN Communication Centre Enugu State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Advertising: advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor.