EFFECTS OF ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA: A CASE STUDY OF NOKIA ENTRANCE INTO THE TELEPHONE MARKET

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   Background to the Study

With the shifting of civilization into a more encompassing culture and an all embracing development the rules and factors affecting business changes drastically. Business now goes beyond a recognition of a demand and the fulfillment of it. The factors that go into this process are more specific and more demanding.

Again, businesses and ideas now see the need to focus more on customer behavioural studies in order to guide them in pushing their products and services and more time and resources is invested more in branding than in the products and services seeing that customers respond more to products and services they are more familiar with.

Another fact apropos to the present study is that the producers of a singular product and service no longer are content in bringing their finished products to only one set of cultural base. With the advent of the different mass media, it is easy now to push one’s products and services to different zones with only a little modification and a study of the target market. This brings us a step towards the object of our present study. Businesses study any new market before going into it. After this they embark on a campaign to familiarize the people with their products and services. The success or failure of these advertising campaigns always sees to the success or the campaigns of that product or services in that new market.

1.2   Statement of the Problem

The idea behind every advertising campaigns is to develop the product and services into a brand so that it becomes a household name and reduce chances of a challenging competition. The end result is that if the campaign is successful the market begins, almost before the end period of the campaign, to accept the product along with it’s themes. Advertising campaigns always aim at building the themes of the campaign into the daily life and culture of the customers. This is what has given birth to the present research- to study the effects of advertising campaigns on the Nigerian market using Nokia’s entry into the Nigerian market.

1.3   Research Questions

1.3.1      How is advertising campaigns different from the regular campaigns.

1.3.2      What are the themes and advertising media used in the Nokia penetration of the Nigerian market.

1.3.3      What were the processes of the Nigerian market responding to their products and services.

1.4   Objectives of the Study

The research aims at, through the study of Nokia’s emergence into the Nigerian market, to identify the effects of their campaign on the Nigerian customers. Another is to establish the how the campaigns bore upon their entire relation which the Nigerian market all through their stay in the country and their general sales. This way we can establish too the way their brand identity was formed and how deep rooted it was founded.

The research work further describes the processes of internalizing the effects of these campaigns in the Nigerian psyche generally and other brands existing before it. It also compares it with other brands like Samsung and Motorola who came around the same time as Nokia and attempts to determine the life span of the brand in the light of recent trends in the telecommunications sector of the Nigerian market.

1.5   Significance of the Study

The findings of this research work will redound deeply on the Nigerian market in driving home the importance of advertising campaigns in building brand identity for startups and their products and services. Partly it will serve as a motivation for the development of a course in marketing and mass communication which will focus on the importance of advertising campaigns and how to adapt them for any form of business.

1.6   Research Hypothesis

The assumption upon which this research work is built is that the media and themes of advertising campaigns employed for a particular product in a particular market shapes the minds of the customers and potential customers.

1.7   Scope of the Study

The research will feature the process by process advertising campaigns and themes employed by Nokia in their entrance into the telephone market in Nigeria. With this we were able to properly delineate the mode of reception of a new product t or service into the Nigerian market. The study focuses on Nokia’s entrance into the Nigerian telephone market so that what is treated here is the first set of campaigns conducted by Nokia during the time of their entrance and the factors considered here centre around telecommunications and market behaviour.

1.8   Limitations of the Study

The major limiting factor for this research work is that of time and resources to conduct a thorough study of both the immediate and remote effects of  Nokia's entry advertising campaigns on the Nigerian market and psyche.

1.9   Definition of Terms

Advertising Campaigns

This are well planned and coordinated strings of advertisements across many different media with a singular idea or theme behind them usually run over a specific period of time with the aim of creating a product or service brand in a particular unique market.