AN APPRAISAL OF INSTAGRAM ADVERTISING AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE BUYING BEHAVIOUR OF VERITAS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The world of advertising has changed supremely in the last few decades. The advertising landscape is shifted from offline to online. But even online there are many new ways to advertise. Advertising on websites with a banner ad is in decline (Manjoo, 2014, p.7). The main reason is that the medium, the web, is also in decline. People use mobile phones with social media and apps that are much prettier, more useful and load faster than websites. The rapidly developing social media have become alternatives to conventional mass media in the spread of news and information. Social media is the most growing advertising method. Advertising on social media, often based on social media data, is called social media advertising. Currently, Instagram is one of the most well known social media applications globally (Marketingfacts, 2017). With this application it is simple to capture photos, customize them and share with your followers. The popularity of Instagram, a social media application with only photo and video content continues to grow strongly. Worldwide there are more than 600 million monthly active Instagram users (Instagram, 2016). A number of users use Instagram to market their businesses by publicly displaying photos or videos of what they would like their followers to be aware of. Partly because of that, Instagram has become a prominent and successful social media platform for marketing and advertising. Since October 2015 it is also possible to advertise on Instagram. There are three different advertising options: photo advertising, carrousel advertising and video advertising.

Social media advertising, or social media targeting, are advertisements served to users on social media platforms. Social networks utilize user information to serve highly relevant advertisements based on interactions within a specific platform. In many instances, when target market aligns with the user demographics of a social platform, social advertising can provide huge increases in conversions and sales with lower cost of acquisition. There are six (6) types of social media advertising which includes;

• Facebook Advertising
• Instagram Advertising
• Twitter Advertising
• Pinterest Advertising
• LinkedIn Advertising
• Snapchat Advertising

Among the social media platforms that are gaining the attention of marketers is the social networking website Instagram. Instagram, with more than one billion users is being extensively used by many companies for advertising, marketing research as well as customer relationship management (Zhao, Yang, Xie, & Wang, 2017, p.243). Instagram advertising is method of paying to post sponsored content on the Instagram platform to reach a larger and more targeted audience. While there are many reasons a business or individual may decide to advertise, Instagram advertising is often utilized to grow brand exposure, website traffic, generate new leads, and move current leads down the funnel (and hopefully towards converting). Since Instagram is such a visual platform, text ads are not a thing here. Rather you need an image, set of images, or video (which can be accompanied by text) to reach your audience with Instagram ads. The potency of instagram as a promotion media for online shop products, among others, Instagram is a part of Facebook, which is a digital promotional media with the largest users in the world and has become the main choice of online shop in promoting its products, instagram users are more often and willing to shop on line.

With the popularity of instagram in Nigeria, especially among youths, most advertisements targeted at youths, that is, advertisements on youth-oriented products are placed on social networking sites, particularly on instagram. This is because youths, the most computer literature segment of the Nigerian population, can create profiles and link with friends even with their cell phones, cameras, iPods, laptops and other digital tools which they can use to establish their online identities. Considering the heavy reliance of the youth on social media, it is without doubt that they are more influenced by them than any other group in the societies, and although there are negative implications of their use, there is also a great number of benefits as well. Some students in universities indulge in buying and selling on social media as their target audience who are mainly also of youthful age are reached through such media. Consumer buying behaviour therefore is the “acquisition, consumption and disposition of products, services, time and ideas by decision making units” (Jacoby, 2010, p.320). Despite the rapid penetration of Instagram among consumers and the wide usage of this social network in marketing, there has been a scarcity in academic research that examines this unique advertising medium. This research will focus on the social role of trust factor, which may influence an individual intention to purchase a product via social media. The understanding of this problem may help identify factors that build trust and purchase intention via Instagram, it will also investigate how social media community affects trust in e-commerce. Presently, social media, such as Instagram, is utilised by users, either sellers or purchasers. The establishment of sustainable relationships will be easy for sellers and purchasers. Social media are also used to form online communities that are usually made of members that have the same positive perception on a product/company. The relationship between trust and purchase intention of consumers will also be investigated. Social media, especially Instagram, can influence consumer trust as they allow open interactions visible to different social media users; thus, they can share information that affects consumer trust and purchase intention. Lastly, the relationship between trust and perceived usefulness of Instagram application on consumer purchase decision will be looked into. The usefulness perceived by social media users who feel the ease in purchasing influences their trust and encourages them to repurchase in the future. Specifically, there is limited research that examines the factors that enhance consumers’ behaviour towards Instagram advertising and the effect of these advertising on consumer buying behaviour (Djafarova & Rushworth, 2017, p. 5). Since those consumers’ behaviour towards advertisements differ with the advertising medium (Elliott & Speck, 2015, p.30), it would be useful to study the effect that instagram advertising has on the consumer buying behaviour of Veritas university students.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Nowadays most of the youth are available on social media. They spend most of their time on social networking so it’s struck to me to find out the impact of social media on their buying behaviour as most of the students and youth purchase their needs online. It is widely believed that youths dominate Instagram accounts (Su, 2010, p.5) and Instagram is, therefore, seen as a good channel for advertisements of youth-oriented products. Water (2010, p.35) opines that, “Due to lack of censorship on the Internet, there has been a growing global concern about the nefarious activities of some Internet users which has made most people to avoid advertisements placed on the Internet”. In line with the above statement by Waters, many Internet users, including Instagram users, may be afraid to access advertisements placed on Instagram because of lack of trust or because the ads take them entirely away to a different site from instagram where they are having social interactions. Knowing full well that advertisers spend money to advertise their products on instagram and if these products are not accessed or patronized, they will not get value for their money, the researchers therefore sought to investigate whether these advertisements are accessed by Instagram users; in this case, students of Veritas University, and whether the advertisements influence them to buy the products. The questions that therefore arise are: Do these students take notice of advertisement placed on Instagram and see them as being targeted at the youths? And do the advertisements influence them to buy the products?

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to examine the impact of instagram advertising on buying behaviour of consumers. Other objectives of the study are:

1. To examine students perception towards instagram adverts and buying online in Veritas University.
2. To examine how consumer trust has effect on purchase intensity and perceived usefulness of Veritas University students.
3. To examine how instagram advertising has influenced the consumer purchasing behavior of Veritas university students.
4. To examine the relationship between trust and purchase intention of consumers in Veritas University
5. To make recommendations on how Instagram advertisers should improve its service to make instagram advertisements to be more appealing, trendy and catchy to the students.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

1. What are the perception of students towards Instagram adverts and buying online in Veritas University?
2. Does consumer trust have effect on purchase intensity and perceived usefulness of Veritas University students?
3. Does instagram advertising influenced consumer purchasing behaviour of Veritas university students?
4. What is the relationship between trust and purchase intention of consumers in Veritas University?
5. How should Instagram advertisers improve its service to make Instagram advertisements to be more appealing, trendy and catchy to the students?

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

HYPOTHESIS 1

1. There is no significant effect of consumer trust on purchase intensity and perceived usefulness among Veritas University students.
2. There is a significant effect of consumer trust on purchase intensity and perceived usefulness among Veritas University students.

HYPOTHESIS 2

1. There is no significant relationship between trust and purchase intention of consumers in Veritas University.
2. There is a significant relationship between trust and purchase intention of consumers in Veritas University.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will equip firms that advertise their products through social media platforms especially instagram with knowledge about the nature, effectiveness and impact of instagram advertising and how they can use this knowledge to better position their adverts to attract, retain and influence university students in purchasing, using or disposing their products. Since most students/youth interact with social media in making decision relating to purchases of their choice, the findings of this study can be used to help the youth population establish the factors that impact on their choices based on the different stages of buyer decisions. It will also be useful to Online Consumers because often, online shoppers are not aware of the factors that impact their decisions. The research provides measures required to ensure that consumers purchase quality products that suit their needs. Again, this study will add to the existing body of knowledge about instagram advertising and serve as a documentary source of reference for other research works in this field.

1.7 scope of study

This research will focus on the impact of Instagram advertising on consumer purchasing behaviour in Veritas University, Abuja, Nigeria. This will reduce the cost and complexity associated with studying a large population. In most cases the characteristics of students are generally similar in many ways; the findings of this study would be generalized to include all students of Nigeria Universities.

1.8 limitations of the study

This study is only limited to the students within the sample population who have access to the web.

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 operational Definition of terms

Social Media: Social media is a media platform that focuses on the existence of users who facilitate them in the move and collaborate. Therefore, social media can be seen as an online medium (facilitator) that reinforces the relationship between users as well as a social bond.

Advertising: Advertising is defined as any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or service by an identified sponsor or advertising is the business of announcing that something is for sale or of trying to persuade customers to buy a Product or service. Advertising is an effort of the company to present or deliver non-personal promotional messages to influence consumers to purchase products (ideas, goods, or services) paid for by identified sponsors.

Consumer Behaviour: Consumer buying behaviour is a direct action Engage in obtaining, consuming, and depleting products or services, including the decision processes that precede and overcome these actions. Consumer buying behaviour can be defined into four definitions, namely: Consumer buying behaviour is the process by which individuals set the answer to the question: what is it, whether, when, where, and from whom goods and services, Behaviours that involve themselves in planning the purchase and use of goods and services, Consumer buying behaviour is any response from consumers, Consumer buying behaviour appears as a movement of the complexity of consumer movement which is the pattern of relations as a whole.

REFERENCES

Djafarova, E., & Rushworth, C. (2017). Exploring the credibility of online celebrities’ Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 1–7. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.009

Elliott, M. T., & Speck, P. S. (2015). Consumer perceptions of advertising clutter and its impact across various media. Journal of Advertising Research, 38(1), 29–30

Instagram (2016). 600 Million and Counting, Instagram. Retrieved from: http://blog.instagram.com/post/154506585127/161215-600million

Jacoby et al (2010). Time and Consumer Behaviour: An Interdisciplinary Overview. Journal of Consumer Research, 2(4), 320. doi: 10.1086/208644

Manjoo, F. (2014). “Fall of the Banner Ad: The Monster That Swallowed the Web.” New York times, November 5. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/technology/personaltech/banner-ads-the-monsters-that-swallowed-the-web.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fstate-of-the-art&_r=0 [Google Scholar] pp.6-9

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Rodman, G. (2010). Mass media in a changing world. (3rd ed.) New York, USA: McGraw Hill. Pp. 291-293

Su, S. (2010). Facebook’s Spanish-language market marked by fragmentation, but promises opportunity. Retrieved from http://www.insidefacebook.com.htm on 12th October, 2010 Pp. 3-8.

Zhao, X., Yang, J., Xie, T., & Wang, Z. (2017). Examining advertising intrusiveness on Instagram: Hedonic and utilitarian attributes of brand and sponsored content. In American Academy of Advertising. Conference. Proceedings (Online) (p. 243). American Academy of Advertising