Impact of Advertising

CHAPTER ONE-Introduction

1. INTRODUCTION

The opening chapter of this dissertation will giverationale of this project work together with an overview about the subject matter, the problem identification, significance of the study which will be in line with the research question, aims and objectives.  Finally, it will provide an overview of the dissertation structure.

1.1INTRODUCTION OF THE SUBJECT MATTER

We live in a world overflowing with advertisement; wherever we turn we are bombarded by a symphony of colors, music and texture in advertising (Durgash, 2004).  In this competitive world, people are striving hard to make their place in the market.  Business has now become a difficult task and an intensive struggle.  For the fulfillment of this aim, advertising is the major source.

Advertising can be defined as a paid presentation of a message on behalf of a product, service or idea by an identified sponsor to mass audience (Well.W, 1992).  Nowadays advertising has become an unusual breed of communication, marketing, psychology and design which is viewed as a key method to communicate and build brand identity.  Among the form of advertising, billboard is considered to be one of the best type of advertising medium consisting of 90% of the whole advertising medium (American Association of Advertising, 2003).

Billboard also called  "hoarding or roadside advertising" is a large outdoor advertising structure typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads in order to get the attention and communicate useful information to the public (Wikipedia and Duncan.T, 2002).  Billboards whose primary purpose is to identify the store and enhance its image of the product, was highly appreciated by almost all companies which opted for it (Bermen And Evans, 1998).

Previous research has concluded that they have seen growth in outdoor advertising.  According to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America (OAAA), the annual

expenditure in the year 1993 were $2.8 billion, and in the year 2001, expenditure rose to $5.1billion (Marketing factbook, 2002) and eventually expenditure has increase up to $5.5 billion in 2003.  This reflects to a new enthusiasm for billboard among media planners (Neuborne and Weil, 2000).

According to Zenith Optimedia (2005), classifies outdoor advertising as a "major medium," along with television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and cinema.  Zenith Optimedia (2005) projects shows continuous growth in outdoor advertising expenditures and ranks outdoor as the fifth largest advertising medium worldwide, behind only television, newspapers, magazines, and radio.  Despite revenue growth, yet outdoor advertising remains "one of the least researched of any mass medium" (Katz 2003, p. 92).  Even among the limited number of studies that have been conducted, few have focused on what factors drive its effectiveness (Donthu, Cherian, and Bhargava 1993).  The focus of this study is on billboards, which remain the most common form of outdoor advertising.

1.2 ADVERTISING AND BILLBOARD IN MAURITIUS

Mauritius has also been plagued by the high dependence of advertising by companies for the promotion of their products, image and brand awareness.  The success in the world of advertising is gaining so much of paramount values that lot of incentives are being given to the advertising company from the part of government and also by the Association of Advertising Agencies of Mauritius (AAAM).  According to AAAM, advertising is a profitable segment and their aims are to give incentives for the development of advertising and to make this field a profitable one.  Table 1.1 provides information on the number of advertising company found in Mauritius.

Table 1.1- Name and number of companies that provides billboard services.

(Source: 2nd newsletter, tilaflam by Association of Adverting Agencies of Mauritius)

Concerning the advertising award for the best outdoor advertising is concern, they are as follows:

• GOLD AWARD- Road safety-ala ou la gare (P&P link)
• SILVER AWARD- We speak your colour (Circus)
• BRONZE AWARD- Le Coeur de l’Ile Maurice (Circus)

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Numerous academic articles, textbooks, and industry publications list key advantages and disadvantages of billboards in comparison to other media.  Moreover, despite numerous discussions of factors associated with billboard advertising success, yet the long history of controversy over billboards continues to be active (Taylor and Chang, 1995).  In fact, many critics believe that billboard should be strictly eliminated as they argued that it does not benefit the society and is like a waste of resources and visual pollution (Vespe, 1997).

The efficiency of billboards is sometime questionable due to the plethora of advertising available everywhere in the daily life.  In brief, there is the problem of “too much ad copy”.  As most billboards are placed along the high traffic major roadways, people passing at a high rate of speed barely noticed or memorized the ads.  In addition, there are other factors that are crucial in evaluating the success of billboard campaign.  So this study will assess these factors and determine how they can be better improved so that to make billboard campaign a more successful one.

 In addition, it has been noticed that billboard cost a lot in terms of marketing strategy.  So this study, will scrutinse what other sort of promotional activities a company may opt for which will bring them more sales.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study is to determine whether billboard is an efficient marketing tool for firms to promote goods, services, and image and to pass out information.  This study may be beneficial to all companies in deciding which advertising medium they can opt for their advertising strategy.  In addition, it may help firm to determine if they should continue to use billboard as their mode of advertising or should they gearedtowards another medium or what change they can brings so that to make billboard to grab the highest customers.  Concerning the wastage of resources, this study may help marketers to make decision in which promotional strategy they should invest their resources.  For example, it is found that billboard is simply a waste of resources as it does not help in achieving organisation marketing goal, then the firm can shift to other strategy which will be of more beneficial to organization.