CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

On line advertising is similar to other forms of communication except for one critical difference that is Internet. Consumer behaviour follows a model radically different from traditional advertising media. This model can be explained as the progression 'Awareness - Interest - Desire - Action'. All these activities occur simultaneously in Internet advertising.

        Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web for the expressed purpose of delivering marketing messages to attract customers (Kotler, P. & Keller. K.L., 2009). Online ads are delivered by an ad server. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads that appear on search engine results pages, banner ads, in text ads, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing, including e-mail spam.

        The World Wide Web (WWW) has grown so fast in the last ten years and it has become an essential part of people. Nowadays, Web advertising is one of the major sources of income for a large number of websites. Online advertisement aims to offer products and services to the users of Internet. The importance of the online advertising is reflected, as it reaches to a huge number of the consumers (Wolin, L. D., Korgaonkar, P., & Lund, D., 2002).

        The use of the internet as a medium of advertisement has gained much popularity not only because the internet has become ubiquitous but also because it offers certain advantages over other forms of advertisement. According to Chandon and Chtourou (2005), the most important feature that makes internet/online advertisement superior to other forms of advertisement is interactivity. Through this feature, the user is able to interact with the advertiser to find out more about the product/services. Other advantages of the internet such as flexibility, easy 24-hour access, and its global coverage are making the internet a preferred medium for advertisers to showcase and sell their products.

Different types of advertisement on the internet platforms can be observed. These include floating ads, expanding ads, pop-ups, wallpaper ads, trick banner, and pop-under, among others. All these types of online ads are designed to catch the attention of the user. In the view of Eadie et al. (2007), online advertisement is used by individuals for three main purposes. These are information seeking, entertainment and social expression. Individuals patronize advertisement in order to seek valuable and necessary information to support their purchase decisions. In addition, advertisements are used by individuals to remain updated (Krishnam & Smith 1998).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The World Wide Web (WWW) has contributed significantly to the growth of commerce in Nigeria and all over the world through information sharing. Most big organizations have moved their businesses online; however inasmuch as the internet has contributed to the growth of commerce and sharing of other vital information, the small business owners still find it difficult to move their businesses online. This could be as a result of cost of advertising. Those that managed to advertise their products could not give quality information to the audience. This could be because of limited resources thereby creating different impression in the mind of consumers. Secondly there have been series of studies on e-advertising but not even a single study has been carried out on the perception of e-advert among students in national Open University 

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main aim of the research work is to examine the perception of e-advert among students in national Open University. Other specific objectives of the study are:

1.  to determine whether national Open University students are use to e-advert

2.  to examine the attitude of national Open University towards e-advert

3.  to examine whether the attitude of national Open University students towards e-advert affect their purchase behavior

4.  to determine the effect of quality of e-advert on national Open University students’ buying behavior

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The study came up with research questions so as to ascertain the above stated objectives of the study. The research questions for the study are:

1.  Are the national Open University students’ uses to e-advert?

2.  What is the attitude of national Open University towards e-advert?

3.  Does the attitude of national Open University students towards e-advert affect their purchase behavior?

4.  What is the effect of quality of e-advert on national Open University students’ buying behavior?

1.5 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Hypothesis 1

H0: the attitude of national Open University students towards e-advert does not affect their purchase behavior

H1: the attitude of national Open University students towards e-advert affects their purchase behavior

Hypothesis 2

H0: there is no mean difference in gender responses of the respondents that the quality of e-advert information affect students attitude towards e-adverting

H1: there is mean difference in gender responses of the respondents that the quality of e-advert information affect students attitude towards e-adverting

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study on the perception of e-advert among students will be of immense benefit to the entire national Open Universities in Nigeria in the sense that the study will establish a relationship between e-advert and student buying behavior. The study will also determine the extent to which the national Open University students are use to e-adverts. The study will serve as a repository of information to other researchers that desire to carry out a study on the perception of e-advert among students in national Open University. Finally the study will contribute to the body of the existing literature the perception of e-advert among students.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study on the perception of e-advert among students will be limited to the national Open Universities in Nigeria because of the large number of students that are used to attending lectures online and are use e-adverts.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

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).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

E-advert: Electronic advertising is advertising that uses the Internet and other forms of digital media to help a business promote and sell goods and services

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