The Impact of E-Advertising Strategy on Customer Buying Behavior: An Analytical Study

An established online presence enables a business to distinguish itself from its rivals. Maybe in 1984, which was the year of the iconic commercial launch of Apple iPhone, the importance of digital advertising and how it will help in building a trillion dollar valuation company as of 2018 was not realized by Steve Jobs.1 Digital advertising, also referred to as online advertising, is a marketing strategy used by businesses to communicate and promote their brand, product or any services via the internet. It can take place through search engines, social media, emails and on a company's build websites. Digital advertising has 4 branches that are: social media, display, paid search and native. Thus digital advertising has the strength that can propel a business and build a strong fan base from its customers. With the help of digital advertising targeted audiences can be directly communicated about the product and advertising content is based upon business target customers. On the other hand, traditional advertising

1Adelaar, T., Lee, B. &Morimoto.M (2003). Emotions & Impulse Buying Behaviour,” Journal of Information Technology, 18, 247-266.

strategies never give importance to and focus on target audiences and tend to advertise their product on a large scale. This reduces the impact of advertisement and is one the other important limitations of traditional marketing2. Customers prefer digital advertising as they get an opportunity to analyze the information provided by the company and are able to compare the product with the similar products offered by other brands in the industry. Digital advertising strategy helps the firm to understand the behavior of the consumer. The research study focuses to analyze the impact of digital advertising on the purchasing behavior of the consumer. Today's market is flooded with choices for the customers not just only about the decision of what to buy but there are plenty of choices available for the decision to be taken for the question from where to buy? And these rise in choices for the customers

2Awobamise, A.O. &Jarrar, Y. (2019). Understanding the e-consumer buying behaviour: Introducing an online buying decision model. Journal of Advanced Research in Dynamical and Control Systems, 11(8), 3215-3225

The digital advertising strategies are mostly target advertising strategies and focus only on their potential customers and their working strategy, for ads, focus on creating a right ad that has a strong impact on its audiences. It is to be something that compels the audience to stop scrolling and think that this is exactly the product they are looking for or need. But digital advertising is not as simple as it used to be when it came into existence3. Advertisers need to put a little more effort. Now the companies are not only concerned with building the right kind of advertisement for their potential customers, but their major concern lies with taking steps through digital advertising so as to build relationships with their customers. The company does so by taking such actions such as gifting free vouchers to attract them and making them believe that they are the exact business from which the customers want to purchase from. The companies also indulge themselves in practices such as ad audit so as to make improvements in their ad and increase their conversion rates.

Digital advertising can be defined as a marketing tool that is used to communicate about the products, brand or service to the customers via the internet. In order to attract customers' attention e-advertisements are designed using various pictures, videos, voices and animations4. With the advancement in technology and increase in the number of people engaged on the internet and other social media platforms, digital advertising has become one of the important means to reach the final customers. Also known as online advertising, it encompasses circumstantial advertising on search engine pages, search advertising (also referred to as paid search), video advertising, email marketing as well as appealing through online channels like you tube etc. Brands also have their online video directories enabling people to view advertisements of various brands. Changes taking place in our lives because of technological advancement as well as technology increasingly becoming a routine of our present lives, we every time feel the need to remain connected. And this can happen only through the internet. And now when everything is on the internet why should companies be left behind from registering their presence over the internet as companies also want to remain connected with their potential customers all the

3 Awobamise, A.O. (2018). Increased Consumerism in a

Networked-Nigeria: A Study on the Effect of E-Malls and Social Media on Youth Spending. Journal of Digital Media & Interaction, 1(2): 40-55 4 Ayanwale, A.B., Alimi, T. &Ayanbimpe, M.A (2005). The influence of Advertising on Consumer Brand Preference. Journal of Social Science, 10 (1), 9-16.

In digital advertising consumers get a chance to compare the product and service with the product and service of other brands. It is believed that digital marketing is able to create a more powerful impact on the consumers as consumers during internet sessions are in their own selected environment. Moreover, these digital marketing tools enable the consumer to experience the virtual reality interfaces, thus letting them use some features of the product before their actual purchase of that product. 6

It's very important for the advertisers and marketers to remain updated with the ongoing trends and now digital advertising has been on trend for the past decade and will still remain to dominate the marketing industry for quite a long period of time. But the question is how do they keep themselves updated with the ongoing trends? The answer is simple by constantly involving themselves in research and by understanding its all the types. Following are the 6 main types of digital advertising 1. Display ads- This is a non target advertising strategy and is a basic form of e-ads and involves image, audio, video and text. In this a business ad is displayed on the third party websites. This kind of digital advertisement is similar to other advertisements we see in newspapers, banners or magazines and the only difference is that display ads appear on the web. This is not too expensive form of e-ads and generally fails to attract audiences and goes unnoticed by them.7 2. Native advertising- It can also be referred to as paid advertising and ads are designed in order to match the content of the video or graphics in which it is appearing. They are not like display ads and they look as a part of the content the viewer is engaged in. So we can say naive ads commonly gets integrated with the web page but still there are some signs through which a consumer can identify a naive ad. 3. Social media- It is a type of digital advertising in which a business makes use of social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and

5 Backhaus, K. and Wilken, R. (2007). Predicting Purchase Decision with Different Analysis Methods, International Journal of Market Research. 49(3). Pp. 341-364 6 Barkowitz et al (1992). Marketing, (3rd Ed.), Macdonald and Evans Ltd, London, U.K. Edition, Pearson Education Ltd. 7 Bauer, H.H., Barnes S.J., Reichardt T., & Neumann, M.M. (2005). Driving Consumer Acceptance of Mobile Marketing: A Theoretical Framework and Empirical Study. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, 6 (3): 181-191.

company's sales. 4. Search engine marketing- The objective of this marketing strategy is to increase the visibility of the web page. The marketers with the help of the keywords used by the users of the sites such as google enter with their product or services that user is interested in. So this is the most effective form of e-advertising strategy and is also referred to as pay per click ads and comes in various formats. 5. Video ads- Also referred to as video marketing makes use of video content for promotion purposes. This video content can be broadcast on a variety of channels such as websites, social media platforms, YouTube etc. videos can be easily shared and increases conversion rates and helps in boosting sales for the business. 6. Email marketing- This is a form of digital as well as direct marketing in which a company uses e-mail to make promotions for their product. Businesses through emails send advertisements, ask for donations and send requests to other businesses. It helps in building meaningful relations with the customers by sending customized and personalized messages to the target audience8.

Consumer behavior can be categorized into 5 types 1. Dissonance reducing- Dissonance is discomfort experienced by consumers after post purchases of the product. This behavior occurs when consumers who are uninformed or unaware are not able to differentiate between the two brands and based on prices make their purchase decision and regret it after purchase9. 2. Habitual purchasing behavior- This behavior is shown by the consumers whose involvement level is low. They don't tend to compare products from various brands and have a habit of purchasing products of a single brand. 3. Variety seeking- This buying behavior can be commonly seen among the consumers who always keep updated themselves with the current fashion trends. The involvement level of consumers in this

8 Briggs, R., & Hollis, N. (1997). Advertising on the Web: Is there response before click-through?, Journal of Advertising Research, 37(1): 33–45. 9 Chadwick F.E.& Doherty N.F. (2012). Web advertising: The role of e-mail marketing. Journal of Business Research, 65: 843–848

4. Complex buying behavior- Such type of buying behavior is common in consumers where their involvement level is very high. Here consumers take time to distinguish various features of two brands and is very conscious about pricing as well as products those are self expressive.10

1. Mediation reality theory- This theory put relevance on application of media while composing ads and suggests that content of media is irrelevant in attracting customers and it is the fiction and actions amalgamated in ads via media technology that persuade customers to buy a product or service. 2. Shifting loyalty theory- It means ads are helpful in building brand loyalty among customers as well as they also are the reasons for a shift in the brand loyalty of the customer from one brand to another. 3. The magic of the meaning theory- Advertisements not only advertise the product but also carries a strong message that may touches viewer‘s emotions and values. 4. The hidden message theory- the theory suggests that ads are responsible for misleading the audience and therefore can prove dangerous as they play with the psychology of the customers and create hidden messages that are burdened with several emotions.

The study can prove to be beneficial not only for the marketers, but also will prove significant to government and academicians. Through this study marketer come to know whether digital advertising does have any impact on increasing consumer awareness about the product and the percentage of consumers who prefer advertising media. Before switching to e-advertising, it is better to understand the nature and behavior patterns of online customers towards advertising. There are some crucial reasons because of which internet has become one of the most popular platform for marketing purposes such as enable 24*7 interactivity between client and marketer, more customers engaged on the internet for purchasing purposes as well as less cost required for advertising products on the internet such that a small business can also think of offering online purchases. The research study suggests that

10 Ducoffe, R. H. (1996). Advertising Value and Advertising on the Web. Journal of Advertising Research. 36 (5):21–35.

RESEARCH STUDY GOALS

The primary goal of the study is to examine the influence of e- advertising on customerbuying behavior and is focused on addressing the two main questions: 1. To study the impact of digital platforms on the purchasing behavior of the consumer 2. To analyze impact of customer information collected through these digital platforms on consumer buying behavior 3. To explore the theoretical framework for understanding the psychological pattern of people while making purchases13

Research problem In the era of globalization, e-marketing has brought a revolutionary shiftin the trading activities of the business. The Internet has become a face of business transactions happening between an individual and a firm. Through the internet, various persons and organizations are using the internet to appeal to buyers across the globe for patronage purposes. Using the internet for advertisements does not involve any large sums of investments from the e-advertisers, instead it helps in bringing them revenues and profits in the form of online sales. The paper suggests that digital advertising greatly impacts the buying behavior of the consumers. It may be possible that in the short run advertisements do not bring bulk sales and hence is not seen as a profitable marketing strategy but in the

11 Flores, W., Chen, Jeng-Chung V. and Ross, W. H. (2014). The Effect Of Variations In Banner Ad, Type Of Product, Website Context, And Language Of AdvertisingOnInternet Users’ Attitudes. Journal of Computers in Human Behavior, 31:37–47 12 Hensel, K. and Deis, M. H. (2010). Using Social Media to Increase Advertising and Improve Marketing. The Entrepreneurial Executive, 15: 87-95 13 Jarrar, Y., Awobamise, A.O. &Aderibigbe, A.A. (2020). Effect of influencer marketing vs Social media sponsored advertising. Utopia y Praxis Latinoamericana, 25(Extra 12), 40-45

minds of the consumers and to prompt them to buy the product or service being advertised. For this they need accurate knowledge about the consumers such as consumer demographic patterns, their needs, purchasing behavior etc. So with respect to the above statement, this study is about knowing the impact that the digital advertising plan of actions has on consumer purchasing behavior.

1. What is social media advertising and why it is important to adopt this strategy by advertisers? 2. How much effective and efficient is to use social media advertising for marketing their products? 3. Where the organizations can advertise their product using methods of digital advertising so as to get maximum benefits? The study emphasized on explaining the effectiveness of e-advertising in persuading customers towards the brand through digital media. A study of 100 firms was conducted and 50 executives were chosen randomly, correlation analysis was used to establish relation between variables of collected data. The results suggest that there exists a positive correlation of digital advertising on the sales of the company. The conclusion was drawn through the results that different types of digital advertising such as email-marketing, social media, search engines etc. helps in boosting sales. The study of contextual data on digital advertising suggests that trends followed by the digital revolution are bringing constant changes in the needs of customers and their behaviors. Therefore, a company is required to constantly update its customer service accordingly. The analyzed sample consists of 100 firms chosen randomly to test the effectiveness of digital media in influencing consumer purchasing behavior. The results suggest that digital advertising or marketing has become an inevitable tool for companies to promote their products, services or brands.

The research design used in the study is observational study design. The main aim of choosing this design is to set up a relationship is infinite. So for the purpose of study, judgmental sampling was used and 100 participants was selected from the population. Primary data is collected from the sample population. The research instrument used to collect information from the sample population is questionnaires. The questionnaires were structural in nature and designed with the aim to get required information from the customers of the chosen organization. A pilot was conducted to estimate the reliability of the questionnaires. Alpha coefficient of .85 was the result which proves that the instrument can be relied on while collecting the information from the sample population. Statistical techniques of regression were applied to data collected so as to find out the answers of the research questions.

A regression test showing that there exists a strong link between e-ads and customer purchasing behavior of Nestle Nig Plc *p<0.05; ** p<0.01; * N = 100 E-advertising and Nestle Nig Plc customers' purchasing patterns are positively correlated [r (98) =.295 p .05]. This means that marketers utilize online advertising strategies to convince customers to purchase Nestle Nig Plc items. Table 1: Summary of the Model a. Predictors: (Constant), Digital advertising The low variance that is accounted for in the model, 15.2%, was demonstrated by the R Square value of.152. 15.2% of the variance in the dependent variable was explained by the variable that is independent of others. Meaning that the regression model is not well-fit. a. Predictors: digital advertising (constant). b. Dependent Variable: Purchasing patterns of consumers Strong stress is placed on consumer purchasing behaviour towards Nestle Nig Plc in Table 2 above [F (2, 99) =27.361; p 0.05]. This suggests that consumer purchasing patterns are a predictor of customers' support for Nestle Nigeria Plc.

The study reveals that while purchasing online the worth of the product which is perceived by the consumer depends both on the quality and benefit received by them and the sacrifice they are making in the form of the purchase price of the product. Thus a company, in order to boost its sales, needs to provide products at affordable prices and always should crosscheck with the pricing strategy of the competitors. The findings from the study suggests that the features such as offering unlimited choice, data screening and steadfastness embraced by the online shopping pages lowers the leadership attempts of the business. Thus companies are required to build trust by providing proper information to the customers. The customer must believe that the page belongs to the company and they will be involved in a genuine transaction and will be satisfied in the same way while making purchases as they are satisfied while purchasing from any offline outlet.

It can be concluded from the research study that a good positive relationship exists between e-advertising and the purchasing conduct of the consumer and consumers tend to buy more products whose benefits are known to them via digital channels. The study also tells about the most influential elements of digital marketing strategy. Kotler said that a successful advertising campaign is one which informs consumers and at the same time helps in increasing sales. Now measuring this sales effect is not that easy because sales besides advertising depend upon a number of factors. So we can conclude that yes digital advertising is a good way to make announcements to the potential customers about any upcoming product or new feature or any update launched in the product but

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