OUTDOOR ADVERTISING DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA AND THE EFFECT ON NIGERIAN BUYERS/CONSUMERS

 

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA AND THE EFFECT ON NIGERIAN BUYERS/CONSUMERS

INTRODUCTION

Advertising is a form of non-personal communication of goods and services through a mass media and paid for by an identified sponsor.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising or outdoor advertising is one of the oldest forms of advertising in Nigeria. Outdoor advertising drives brand awareness, enabling advertisers to market to consumers while they are on the go through contents on billboards, hoardings, buses and public locations.

Professional advertising in Nigeria dates back to 1928, with the establishment of West African Publicity Limited, a subsidiary of United African Company (UAC). The UAC subsidiary later forked into Afromedia, Nigeria’s pioneer out-of-home media servicesprovider.  Static billboards were the mainstay in the OOH industry for a long time. But with the advent of technology came digital billboards. Other forms of outdoor advertising include street furniture advertising, on-vehicle or transit advertising, in-store advertising, among others. According to a report by mediaReach OMD, a Lagos-based Media Agency, there are over 140 organisations providing billboards and hoardings across the country.

OOH Advertising in Nigeria is being driven by the telecommunication and alcoholic beverages Industries.  Large chunk of their advertising budget is being allocated to OOH year-on-year to drive visibility and impact for their brands.

In Nigeria, developments in the industry have seen most practitioners migrating their portfolios from static displays to LED displays (Light-emitting diode display). Trends in the industry also indicate a growth in the adoption of on-vehicle digital signage, which has to do with eye-catching ways to advertise businesses on LED screens fitted on vehicles and trucks.

The advertising markets of Lagos and Abuja are leading as seen in the spread of large LED display billboards. The LED billboards have also helped in adorning the skylines at night, with some powered by both visual and audio capabilities drawing more eye contacts. Apart from being strategically located to optimize vehicular and human traffic, the more aesthetic the billboards and hoardings are, the more they beautify the environment both during the day and at night. However, the critical value of OOH is driving patronage and impacting the businesses of the advertisers. As such, as the OOH continues to evolve in Nigeria, it becomes imperative for practitioners to reposition by improving on their competences, capability and capacity to deliver value.

The industry has evolved beyond billboards as the major offering. In the current digital age, interactive visuals and audio help in driving call-to-action, of which LCD and LED screens provide. New offerings are needed to complement existing offerings to deepen the market. This will increase competition and enhance product delivery.  This means LCD and LED screens would make a huge impact in the OOH ecosystem now and in the future. Already, we are beginning to see LCD screens being installed inside Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) buses. More LCD screens are coming up inside supermarkets, bars, restaurants, hotels, petrol stations, and a number of retail places and parks.

Corporate ownerships in the out-of-home advertising industry is predominantly sole proprietorship or family-owned with its attendant limitations in both capital and human resource availability. Consolidation of existing corporate structures is proposed for the purpose of engendering best practice and more robust service delivery. Consolidation would also accelerate industry growth, deepen portfolio offerings, provide more value to clients, offer stable employment opportunities, improve remuneration structure for the industry, and enthrone sound corporate governance practices, while offering deeper financing pockets.

The need for consolidation is for the best interest of the industry, notwithstanding the concerns of business owners about losing control. Strategically, consolidations through mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, management buyout, and leverage buyout are designed to enhance proper corporate board structures and strengthen management and organisational direction. The top big players such as Optimum Exposures, Invent Media, Media Link, Promo Serve, New Crystal, Marketing and Media, Rocana, Afromedia, Luzo Media, E Motions, Nigeria Advertising Services and Global Outdoor are in the best positions to drive the needed consolidation through mergers, acquisitions or takeovers of the smaller players.

As part of its ‘Share a Coke’ campaign, Coca-Cola collaborated with some out-of-home communications agencies, a social media management agency and Google on a project that went live at the Times Square in New York City last year. The soft drinks giant got people to tweet their first names to a dedicated campaign hashtag – #CokeMyName. A personalized story about each name appeared on a digital billboard above Times Square. An image of that story on the billboard was then tweeted back to the users after being captured by a camera.

There is increasing integration between out-of-home advertising and the internet. Data is being integrated to target specific segments of people to enhance campaign messages. With technological advancements, ads can be automated and contents on a digital billboards can change depending on real-time information on traffic at particular routes or public places. The deployment of sensors and cameras on billboards will also facilitate the appropriate determination of advertising rates as data on vehicular and human traffic are readily available.

Technology has become very pervasive, significantly impacting on businesses and the economy. From automobile, aviation, financial services, industries, consumer goods and marketing, technology has continued to redefine how businesses are conducted. Big data, artificial intelligence, web applications, the internet, analytics, etc are some of the different means by which technology has become the driving force of businesses.

For the OOH industry to achieve an appreciable level of utilisation of technology, there needs to be cross-sectoral collaboration between the industry and the telecoms companies on the one hand, and state governments on the other hand. This will enable the advertising companies to leverage existing infrastructure as well as the services of local traffic management authorities.

To enable media agencies in the OOH sector to reduce operational costs, co-ownership initiatives need to be promoted and encouraged. The sharing economy is a system for sharing of human, physical and intellectual assets. Uber, the global ride-hailing company, has said ride-sharing is part of its growth strategy.
Within the outdoor advertising industry in Nigeria, the adoption and application of sharing economy by practitioners will stimulate growth through co-ownership of sites.

This system can be deployed by two non-competing brands who could share an advertising space on the same billboard. Rather than alternate between one another as it is currently done in the industry – where the clients get to pay the same exorbitant rates – advertisers can reduce their costs by sharing the same platform with a non-competing brand.

Tying all this together is regulation. Governments across the states of the federation are adopting the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) model to regulate OOH practices. LASAA is an agency of the Lagos Sate government that regulates signage and outdoor advertising in the state, while also providing the infrastructures for outdoor advertisements. Such infrastructures include street lights, bus shelters, among others. Advertisements on BRT buses are done in collaboration with LASAA.

While the essence of regulating the sector is to protect the environment and also promote best practice and professionalism, excessive regulation can stifle growth. Industry practitioners are concerned about the plethora of regulatory bodies whose sole objective is often to charge high tariffs and taxes on billboards and other OHH channels.

For businesses to thrive, government has an obligation to provide an enabling environment. High tariffs and taxes can ultimately disincentivise businesses and sstifle economic output.

Out of home offers and serves as…

1. Support medium: A perfect strategic add-on/extension to other media channels like television and radio in campaign execution.
2. Recency: 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week presence.
3. Low cost per thousand: Cost efficiencies that can be unachievable using other mainstream medium.
4. Flexibility: The ability to reach markets and/or demographic profiles considered difficult or too expensive with other medium of advertising.

THE EFFECTS OF OUT-OF-HOME (OOH) ADVERTISING ON NIGERIAN BUYER/CONSUMERS

• Creates awareness for the Nigerian consumers on the availability of a product or brand in the market
• OOH advertising have a massive impact and lasting imprint on the Nigerian consumers
• It serves as a reminder medium
• It triggers compulsive buying
• It helps in making rapid purchase decision
• It reaches consumers at the point of purchase (recency)
• People without purchasing power begin to crave things they don’t necessary need
• To change perception of the consumers
• Billboards can deliver on clean eye-popping exposure 24/7, clutter free messages in a uniquely customized environment and desirable suburban coverage filling gaps left by other media.

 

 

FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN CHOOSING OOH

• The Campaign Objective
• Target Audience
• The Size of the Board
• Audience Count (Traffic Area)
• Opportunity to See
• Angle of Elevation
• Budget

ADVERTISING FUNCTIONS

1. Information: the role of advertising here is to communicate to consumers, the existence of goods and services. It tells consumers about what goods and services are available and in what locations they can be purchased and sometimes at what price. In playing the informational role, advertisement highlights the special physical and quality attributes of available goods to satisfy consumer needs.
2. Reminding: Advertising is intended to keep a brand’s name in the memory of consumers. When a need arises that is related to the advertised product, past advertising impact makes it possible for the advertiser’s brand to come to the consumer’s mind as a purchase candidate. An advertisement created to do this is referred to as Reminder Advertisement.
3. Persuading: Effective advertising persuades customers to try advertised products or services. Often times, the persuasion may take the form of influencing primary demand i.e. creating demand for an entire product category.
4. Adding value: Given that there are three major ways a company can add value to its offerings, viz: Innovation, quality improvement and alteration of consumer perceptions; advertising adds value to brands by influencing consumers’ perceptions. Effective advertising causes brand to be viewed as more elegant, more stylish, more prestigious and probably superior to competitors’ offerings.
5. Assisting other company efforts: Advertising can be viewed as one member of the marketing communications tools. Terence (2000) puts it this way, “Advertising is at times a scorer that accomplishes goals itself. At other times, advertising’s primary role is as an assister that facilitates other company efforts in the marketing communications process”. While also playing this role, advertising is seen as assisting the effort of sales representative in that it tries to pre-sell the company’s product and provides salespeople with valuable introductions prior to their personal contact with prospective customers.

To complement Terence’s view, Anyacho (2007) adds the following as part of advertising functions:

Education: Advertising creates knowledge about a wide range of products usage and the alternatives available and offers the right of choice.

Economic: Advertising stimulates commerce and industries. By promoting consumption, demand is created and with more demands, the factory produces more, thus; resulting into high domestic product, creation of wealth and employment.

Social: Advertisements that call people’s attention to good environment, cleanliness, good health, disease prevention etc are performing social functions.

PURPOSE OF ADVERTISING

Nwaizugbo (2004) identifies the following as the purposes for which advertising is based:

• It promotes product and organization it stimulates primary and secondary demand for the advertised product
• It is used to offset or counter the competitor’s advertising
• It helps to make the work of sales persons more effective
• It is used to increase the uses of a product
• It helps to remind and reinforce customer’s interest in a product or in an institution or idea It also can be used to reduce fluctuations in product sales.

 

 

TYPES OF ADVERTISING

Advertising can be grouped into two large divisions according to Anyacho (2007) which include:

1. a) Print Advertising:- All forms of copy work including non-audio visuals such as newspapers, magazines, posters, calendars etc. This form of advertising can further be grouped into:

• Display Advertisement: This is the larger and dominant type of advertising having illustrations blended with copy to create attract .
• Classified Advertisement: These are small advertisements usually grouped according to their contents. They are mainly personal announcements paid for by individuals. Examples are; change of names, individual-based offers and bids.

1. b) Audio-Visual (Broadcast) Advertising: this refers to the advertising broadcast in radio and television, as well as emerging media like the internet. This form of advertising appeals to the sense of hearing and sight. Examples are; radio jingles and spot announcements.

CLASSIFICATION OF ADVERTISING

The following criteria were adopted by Anyacho (2007) in classifying advertising:

1. Classification by Target Audience: the originator of this class of advertising is mainly the producer who produces a product or service for profit. This class of advertising can take the following forms:
2. a) Consumer Advertising: this occurs when the producer tries to reach and influence through the advertising mediums.
3. b) Trade advertising: Producers can direct consumer goods towards retailers and wholesalers. In this form, the producer seeks the attention and patronage of supermarkets, hardware stores, specialty stores and small business people. The intent of this form of advertising is for those outlets to stock and promote the sale of a particular brand. Users are expected to make purchase from these outlets. The product could be promoted under the stores brand name.
4. c) Public Relations Advertising (Institutional advertising): Producers sometimes use advertising to promote their public relations objectives.
5. Classification by media type:

Classification of advertising according to exposure channels may take any of the following forms.

1. a) Print Advertising: these comprise newspapers, magazines, books, pamphlets, leaflets, posters etc.
2. b) Broadcast: include radio, television/satellite/cable and home video
3. c) Out-of-home Advertising: uses signs, billboards, transit (train, buses, sales van), point of sale materials, mobile megaphone messages etc.

Classification by Geographical Area: this encompasses the following:

1. a) International Advertising: this refers to advertising designed to reach several countries and societies. As the concept of world market is becoming interesting to producers, products made in one country find themselves in other countries and advertising is seen to be serving this purpose. Media used here are cable networks, satellite television, international newspapers and magazines, the internet etc.
2. b) National Advertising: this has the aim of reaching out to the audience all over a country. When a product is designed to be marketed throughout the nation, advertising follows. Media used are national television and radio networks, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, billboards etc.
3. c) Regional Advertising: this is advertising intended for specific zones within a country. It is suitable for marketing products confined to specific parts of the country.
4. d) Local Advertising: this form of advertising is intended for the marketing of products or services within a local environment. It is best suitable for supermarkets, retail shops, food stores etc. Local advertising informs the target audience about where to purchase the goods advertised. This is also called retail advertising. Most common media used are directional signs, signboards, billboards, local newspapers, and local radio stations.
5. e) Travel Advertising: this is tourism-related advertising. It enables organizations to reach out to international audience to sell holiday services available. The essence is to make international travelers patronize the resorts centre anytime they visit the country where they are located.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

This is an action plan that guides the Advertiser towards accomplishing the advertising objectives. An advertising strategy according to Ehikwe (2006) is required to determine the specific marketing tasks that advertising will have to perform in the sale of a product. Advertising strategy is what the advertiser says about the brand being advertised.

Advertising strategy however, involves four major activities as identified by Terence (2000).

1. Objective setting
2. Budgeting
3. Message strategy and
4. Media Strategy
5. Setting the Objective: Advertising objectives are the desired goals expected of advertising efforts. These goals are based on the current or anticipated competitive situation in the product category and the problems that the brand must confront or the opportunities that are available for it to seek. Objectives provide the foundation upon which every advertising decision is channeled. The necessity for setting advertising objectives arises for the following reasons:
6. a) Advertising objectives are an expression of management consensus. In the course of setting objectives, top management personnel agree on the duration for the advertisement, as well as the task it is to be accomplished for a specific brand.
7. b) Objectives setting guide the budgeting, message and media aspects of the brand. This means that how much money to be spent, kinds of advertising message and choice of media are all determined by the set objectives.
8. c) Advertising objectives provide standards against which results can be measured. Good objectives set precise, quantitative yardsticks of what advertising hopes to accomplish. Subsequent results can be compared with these standards to determine whether the advertising accomplished what it was intended to do.

REQUIREMENTS FOR SETTING GOOD ADVERTISING OBJECTIVES

According to Terence (2000), a good advertising objective must satisfy the following:

1. a) Precise statement of who, what and when: this implies that objectives must specify the target audience (who), indicate the specific goal to be accomplished (what) and the relevant time frame in which to achieve the objective (when).
2. b) Quantitative and Measurable: this demands that advert objectives be stated in quantitative terms so as to be measurable.
3. c) The amount of change must be specified: this holds that, in addition to being quantitative and measurable, objectives must specify the amount of change they are intended to accomplish. For example, if company “A” decides to advertise to increase awareness from 40-70%, anything less than this 30% change would be considered unsuitable performance.
4. d) Objectives must be realistic: Unrealistic objectives equal to not having objectives at all. An unrealistic objective is one that cannot be accomplished in the time allotted to the proposed advertising investment.
5. e) Internally consistent: This demands that advertising objectives must be compatible with other objectives set for other components of the marketing communications mix.
6. f) Clear and formal: For objectives to accomplish their purposes of fostering communication and permitting evaluation, they must be stated clearly and in writing so that they can be disseminated among their users and those who will be held responsible for seeing that the objectives are accomplished.

 

 

BUDGETING FOR ADVERTISING

The advertising budget is a simple explanation of the monetary involvements in the accomplishing of advertising plans and objectives. It is a translation of advertising plans into the financial statement of costs – Ehikwe (2006). The cost of advertising refers to the how much the company is prepared to spend on advertising in a particular year. This is the budget for advertising, which of course should be a proportion of the total budget for promotion.

In determining the advertising budgets, the following methods may be applicable as adapted from Terrence (2000):

1. Affordable Method: In this method, what the company can afford is a determinant of the advertising budget. For some companies, after they have budgeted for everything, the remaining fund is channeled to advertising. At this point, that particular fund available is what they can afford. However, only companies that have less regard for advertising can practice this method. The question may now arise; what will be the place of advertising if after budgeting for everything, nothing is left? The answer becomes the weakness inherent in this method.
2. Share-of-market/Share-of-voice/Market forces method: This is an attempt to link advertising budget with sales objectives. It holds that a company’s best chance of maintaining its share of the market is to keep a share of advertising (voice) somewhat ahead of its market share. However, this method is commonly used to introduce new product.
3. Percentage-of-sales budgeting: in this method, a company establishes advertising budget as a fixed percentage of its sales revenue. Advertising budget is determined by allocating a percentage of last year’s sales, anticipated sales for next year, or a combination of the two.
4. The competitive parity: This method is also called the match-competitors method or budget by comparative analysis. This refers to setting advertising budget by basically following what the competitors are doing. The company tries to match the advert budget of its competitors. This method is criticized in that, a firm using this method will always be a follower in the market with minimum initiative, hence, if the leader firm fails as a result of little or no advertising, the follower firm also fails in the same manner.
5. Objective and task method: This method entails setting an advertising budget based on the role advertising is expected to play on a brand and the objective to be achieved. It considers advertising as a marketing tool to aid sales.

OVERVIEW OF ADVERTISING MEDIA

The media which is the plural of medium, generally, refers to vehicles used to convey information, entertainment, news and advertising messages to an audience. Advertising Media, according to Wright (1982) are the means by which advertisers reach their prospective customers with advertising messages.

THE MEDIA MIX

The choice of media for advertising poses a problem in deciding which medium or media mix that will reach a client’s prospective customers. However, the media mix variables can be categorized into:

1. a) The Electronic/Broadcast Media and
2. b) The Print Media
3. c) Out-of-homes
4. d) The new media

THE ELECTRONIC MEDIA

The broadcast media such as radio and television are frequently referred to as electronic media. As channels of communication, television and radio are fundamentally different. While television has the features of sight, sound and motion, the radio depends on sound alone. These differences notwithstanding, the two forms of media have something in common, as both transmit messages through the airwave and are received instantaneously. However, the signals transmitted by the two media are transient in nature, i.e. the messages are lost if not received as the broadcast is being made.

Types of Television Broadcast: A great deal of change has taken place in the technical aspects of television. Owing to this development, several types of television systems are now available to advertisers for delivery of their messages to their target audience. These television broadcast types are discussed briefly below:

1. Network Televisions: Whenever a programme originates from a single source and the same programme is broadcast simultaneously by more than one station, such broadcast arrangement is known as network broadcasting. For instance, the Nigeria Television Authority which has many stations spread all over the states of the federation, and these stations can on their own originate programmes and air within their coverage areas. On the other hand, the same Television Authority can hook up with these local stations to broadcast network programmes.
2. Cable Television: This is a model of broadcasting whereby signals are delivered to homes through the cable, usually on subscription. In Nigeria today, examples of cable television are DSTV, HITV and most new, the Daarsat.
3. Local Television: A local television station originates its own programme and is affiliated to a network whose programme it can broadcast on arrangement. It is an individual station, broadcasting in a limited geographical area. This may be a better medium of use by many advertisers due to its relatively lower rate than national television network especially for brands targeted for specific geographical areas. Examples are the AIT, Silverbird Television, IBC, TVC etc.

THE PRINT MEDIA

The print media comprise Newspapers, Magazines and Journals. They are efficient in delivering messages one topic at a time and one thought at a time. Their strength lies in the continuity of the advertisement messages as long as the copy remains readable. These advertising media are often referred to as the Silent Salesmanship unlike the electronic media which are known as the Vocal Salesmanship. The available media selections here are:

NEWSPAPER: This is the oldest medium of advertising. It is the most popularly used medium in print advertising because of its readership strength. The dominance of the newspaper as a medium of advertising remained unchallenged until the advent of commercial broadcast.

Newspapers publication may be daily or weekly. Those published on daily basis are known as daily newspapers, which comprise the Guardian, the Punch, the Vanguard, Thisday etc, while those published weekly are called weekly newspapers, such as Sunday Guardian, Sunday Punch, Business Times, Financial Standard etc. Newspapers are usually of two dominant sizes. The first is referred to as the tabloid, consisting of five or six columns, (except the Guardian which has seven columns). Most newspapers in Nigeria fall under this category. The second size is called the standard size or broadsheet, which is twice as large as a tabloid, and is usually eight columns. The Post Express in Lagos and the Triumph in Kano are example of broadsheet in Nigeria.

TYPES OF NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT

Basically, there are three types of advertisement usually published in newspapers, namely; the Classified, the Display and the Supplement.

1. Classified Advertisements: These consist of all types of commercial messages, usually short and personal and often arranged according to their interests. They are usually published a few inches across a newspaper column. Personal messages such as change of name, cars for sale, missing persons or things, Disclaimer etc are examples of classified advertisements.
2. Display Advertisements: These are sponsored messages of various sizes, appearing in any part of the newspaper not designated to editorial matters. A display advertisement can have as components of its layout, well formatted text, photographs or visuals and other details relevant to the message.

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

As adapted from Nwaizugbo (2004), the factors influencing consumer behavior are summarized as follows:

1. a) Individual Factors: which include Demography, Perception, Motivation, Learning, Belief and attitudes, Psychographics and values, personality and Self concept.
2. b) Social Factors: these comprise cultural influences, social class influences, Reference group influences and family influences.
3. c) Situational factors: which could be viewed in the following ways:
4. Intensity of the response behavior: Certain objectives or motives may propel a consumer to buy products. Whereas some consumers buy for immediate use or future consumption, others buy to give out. In any case, these buying decision behaviors may be termed: Routine response behavior, Limited problem solving or Extensive problem solving.

In the first case, the consumer is very familiar with all it takes to make a decision and quickly does that without wasting time. In the case of limited problem solving, the consumer may require further information before deciding to buy especially a new product. Products that are occasionally purchased such as specialty goods follow this process. Finally, in extensive problem solving, the consumer must follow the entire buying decision process.

1. Some purchases may also be planned, routine, impulse or emergency.

iii. Previous experience, interest, perceived risk of negative consequences, situation and social visibility may also influence consumer purchase behavior.

STEPS IN THE CONSUMER DECISION MAKING

1. Problem Recognition: The problem recognition stage is where the consumer experiences a state of felt deprivation (need) or wants. According to Nwaizugbo (2004), a problem stage is when the consumer feels an imbalance between his actual state and desired state. In this case, a need had arisen to be satisfied, which must be properly identified to avoid wrong decision making.
2. Information Search and evaluation: Once the Consumer has recognized a problem, the next stage is to search for information in order to solve the problem. Here, the consumer seeks information on which brand that can solve the recognized problem. At this stage, he may be faced with various brands which he evaluates for the purpose of selecting the best. In the evaluation process, he considers factors like, prices, qualities etc, as well as the extent to which the product can solve the need.
3. Purchase decision: After evaluating the alternative brands and selecting the best, the Consumer is now ready to make a purchase. It’s however, noteworthy that sometimes, purchase intention does not result in an actual purchase. This is where the role of the organization in facilitating the consumer to act his purchase intention becomes very necessary.
4. Post-purchase evaluation: It is very common for a consumer to experience concerns after making a purchase decision. As submitted by Kotler and Armstrong (2007), a purchase behavior is the stage of the buyer decision process in which the consumer takes further action after purchase, based on his satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The consumer, having bought a product may feel that an alternative would have been preferable. Given this situation, the consumer may not re-purchase immediately, but is likely to switch brands in future time.