Conceptual Review of the Effects of Advertising on Consumer Buying Behaviour

Over the years, advertising has become a regular strategy for positioning products, services and ideas in the market place. Yet an over dependence on advertising could be counter-productive and disdainful for the targeted audience who often regard excessive advertising as information overload. In spite of the growing criticisms about the effectiveness or otherwise of advertising, its relevance in contemporary marketing management is not in doubt. This exploratory study was structured to critically to examine the usefulness of advertising in persuading consumers to adopt a new or an existing product, with a special focus on Nigeria as a developing economy. The aim primarily was to examine the effect of advertising on consumer buying behaviour within the Nigerian context. The study focused on revealing the relationship either positively or negatively, between advertising and consumer buying behaviour. It equally postulates what effect continuous advertisement of product has on consumer buying behaviour. The findings indicate that advertisements that are properly packaged will surely persuade consumers to experiment the particular product, and that such advertisement should be executed long enough to generate such curiosity that will motivate consumers to buy. The study recommends a proper understanding of various segments of customers and their buying behaviours. And the organisation as well as others, must endeavour to understand the buying behaviour of its customers in order to identify the - what, why, where, when and how - they buy; otherwise, an unstructured advertising campaign will not yield positive results