Keywords

Advertising, Effectiveness, Media, Consumer Behavior, Covid-19.

Introduction

Advertisements are an effective way for communicating with the audience (viewers, readers or listeners) and persuade them for making purchase decision and conveying the sought information. It is considered as one of the vital and essential aspect for the marketers and businesses Ryans (1996). Marketers have always been interested in the intent of consumers. Marketers employ diverse media vehicles to send across a conveying message to the targeted audience. The main objective of advertising is to have positive influence on the purchase behavior. Various theories of marketing clearly state the relationship between advertisements and different stages associated with consumer behavior. Covid-19 has changed the way of action of businesses and the behaviour of consumers dramatically Donthu & Gustafsson (2020); Pantano et al., 2020). The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed consumer behaviour and thus compelled businesses to modify their advertising, marketing, promotional, and media spending. The consumer doesn’t quickly spend money unless they are sure that they are paying for what is expected out of it. It thus becomes more challenging from the advertisement point of view to spend the sizable marketing budget on the media in order to grab the attention of the target segment and influence consumer behavior. The challenge for the marketers is to provide the right information, to the right person, in the right place.

It is very well evident that consumers have different expectations from different media platforms such as TV, Radio, e-Newspapers, e-Magazines and the Social Media to gather information. The distinctiveness of diverse media and its immediate and gradual effects on consumers are also diverse Doyle & Saunders (1990). The effectiveness of the diverse media platforms on consumers’ memory varies over a period of time and is also different for individual consumer Berkowitz et al. (2001).

Literature Review

The consumer passes through various stages before making a final purchase. It is obvious that before making a purchase, benefiting from a service or consuming an offer in general, the consumer goes through several stages in order to make his decision. Kotler (2009). Kumar & Raju (2013) in their article “The Role of Advertising in Consumer Decision Making” have found advertisements as being able to modify the opinion of the consumer regarding a particular product. Daramola (2003) state that the intention of advertising is to encourage instant action, to create fondness and liking for a product or organization, and to create attentiveness about a product or service.

The foremost formal model of advertising regarding the cognition-affect-conation sequence is attributed to Lewis’s AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action) model Vakratsas & Ambler (1999). Lewis’ AIDA model which dates from the 1800s and which specifies the different phases determining the triggering of the purchase was originally developed for structuring sales negotiations; which is being applied in all areas of marketing including advertisements. Even today, the mentioned model is one of the renowned models applied in contemporary advertising research. The very rationale of an advertisement is to grab attention, then to generate interest, to convince, so to create the belief. AIDA model suggests that advertising plays an important role in grabbing consumers’ attention, building interest, creating desire and ultimately initiating action in terms of purchasing of the product or service advertised. In the awareness phase, the aim of marketing activities is simply to make the brand memorable and to make potential customers aware of its existence. Once the consumer is aware about the existence of the product or service, the marketers’ task is to increase the potential customer’s interest level. The ultimate goal of the marketer is to drive the receiver of the advertising campaign to initiate action and purchase the product or service. Consumers’ reactions to advertising go into the building and maintaining affinity, and its impact on consumer behavior can be significant.

Traditional hierarchy-of-effects models suggest that, advertising exposure leads to brand cognition and cognition about the ad, which then leads to the attitude towards the advertisement and the brand until their purchase intent Mendelson & Bolls (2009). Purchase decision is sought if the viewer has positive attitude towards the advertisement. There lies a significant impact of advertisements on purchase decision because of an emotional response being created (Saleem & Abideen & Saleem (2011).

Objectives of The Study

1. To examine if awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19 are influenced by advertisements.

2. To examine if purchase behavior Post-Covid 19 of consumers is influenced by advertisements.

Hypothesis

In order to attain the mentioned objectives; the following hypothesis was formulated:

H1: There is no significant influence of TV advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.

H2: There is no significant influence of Radio advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.

H3: There is no significant influence of e-Newspapers advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.

H4: There is no significant influence of e-Magazines advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.

H5: There is no significant influence of Social Media advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.

H6: There is no significant influence of TV advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.

H7: There is no significant influence of Radio advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.

H8: There is no significant influence of e-Newspapers advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.

H9: There is no significant influence of e-Magazines advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.

H10: There is no significant influence of Social Media advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.

Research Methodology

The structured questionnaire consisting of 11 items having seven-point Likert scales starting from 1-Strongly Disagree to 7-Strongly Agree was being used for the study purpose. The convenience sampling method was incorporated. Sample size used was 300 and the respondents for the study were students pursuing management courses (private and government as well) at both UG & PG level in Bihar & Jharkhand. The Cities considered for collecting the data for research work were Patna (Bihar), Gaya (Bihar), Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Jamshedpur (Jharkhand). The data for the study was collected through online Google form.

Phase I (Pilot Study)

The structured questionnaire was distributed online using Google form among 50 samples for the purpose of pilot testing. The result using SPSS 22.0 for the reliability analyses was calculated and the value of “Cronbach Alpha” calculated was found to be above the cut-off value of 0.70 as suggested by Nunnally (1978). Thus, it can be inferred as questionnaire to be reliable for carrying out the study further. The research was then advanced to the collection of the data for the main study.

Phase II (Main Study)

The data reliability analyses result of the 300 sample collected online was found to be 0.720 (above the cut-off value of 0.70 as suggested by Nunnally (1978).

A multivariate statistical method of Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used as a fundamental tool in order to reduce the available data to a smaller set of summary variables. It helped in exploring the underlying theoretical structure and also the phenomena related to the relationship Table 1.

Table 1 Exploratory Factor Analysis
Item	Awareness	Interest	Conviction	Purchase Behavior
1) Regularly going through the advertisements to keep updated about products during Covid-19.	0.778
2) Advertisements helping in knowing new products during Covid-19.	0.684
3) Giving due attention to advertisements before purchasing during Covid-19.	0.649
4) Most advertisements create interest during Covid-19.		0.527
5) Advertisements are informative and providing detailed description of product during Covid-19.		0.521
6) Advertisements demonstrate the way of usage of product during Covid-19.		0.502
7) Most of the advertisements are necessary to go through before purchase during Covid-19.			0.521
8) Often get convince about the claims portrayed in the advertisements during Covid-19.			0.649
9) Advertisements can change perception regarding product during Covid-19.			0.627
10) Most of the time advertisements prompt me to purchase during Covid-19.				0.717
11) The promotion scheme related advertisements generally compel me for purchase during Covid-19.				0.721

Principal component analysis (PCA) and rotation method of varimax with Kaiser Normalization having eigen value more than one were used to extract the factors. Varimax technique was used in order to make the column of the factor matrix simple so that the factor extracts are clearly associated with some separation among the variables. Both component matrix unrotated and rotated was executed. After rotation, the factor structure was improved. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was run to extract the factors. All the values of factor loadings exceeded 0.50 (Table 1) and hence acceptable Leandre et al. (2012). Item Number one (1) to nine (9) was grouped as pre-purchase stage; while Item Number ten (10) and eleven (11) were grouped as purchase stage Table 2.

Table 2 Kruskal-Wallis (KW) Test
Kruskal-Wallis (KW) test: Outcome
Null Hypothesis	Statement	p-value	Result
H01	There is no significant influence of TV advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.006	Rejected
H02	There is no significant influence of Radio advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.056	Accepted
H03	There is no significant influence of e-Newspapers advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.041	Rejected
H04	There is no significant influence of e-Magazines advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.129	Accepted
H05	There is no significant influence of Social Media advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.013	Rejected
H06	There is no significant influence of TV advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.119	Accepted
H07	There is no significant influence of Radio advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.432	Accepted
H08	There is no significant influence of e-Newspapers advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.019	Rejected
H09	There is no significant influence of e-Magazines advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.007	Rejected
H010	There is no significant influence of Social Media advertisements on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19.	0.147	Accepted

From Table 2 (Output of The Kruskal–Wallis test) it can be seen that at the significant level 0.05; the significant two-tailed values for the influence of advertisements on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19 through TV, e-Newspapers and Social Media are 0.006, 0.041 and 0.013 respectively indicating our framed null hypothesis H01, H03 and H05 to be rejected. In the similar line for the null hypothesis H08 and H09 regarding influence of advertisements through e-Newspapers and e-Magazines on purchase behavior Post-Covid 19 the significant two-tailed values are 0.019 and 0.007 respectively indicating the rejection of the mentioned hypothesis Lee (2013).

Results and Conclusion

The results from the data analysis clearly indicates that advertisements post Covid-19 through TV, e-Newspapers and Social Media is having a significant effect on University students pursuing Management courses in Bihar & Jharkhand regarding awareness, interest and conviction. Hypothesis testing also reveals no significant influence of advertisements through Radio and e-Magazines on awareness, interest and conviction stages of consumer behavior Post-Covid 19. Further, it was also observed that advertisements through e-Newspapers and e-Magazines significantly affect the purchase behavior of University students pursuing Management courses in Bihar & Jharkhand Post-Covid 19.

Advertisements through TV, Radio and Social Media do not have significant influence on purchase behavior of University students pursuing Management courses in Bihar & Jharkhand Post Covid-19 which is contradictory to the findings of which highlights that the customers look intensively for the information about the product on social media sites. There lies the significant influence on all the stages i.e., awareness, interest, conviction and purchase behavior for advertisements through e-Newspapers; however for advertisements through Radio no such significant influence is found on any stage.

Limitations of the Study

The present investigation has several limitations highlighting towards the various key points to be addressed in the future. Various aspects of consumer behavior like color, design, and size to name a few were not considered in the present research work. Also, the gender facet and family background was not considered in the current study.

Scope for Future Research

The health crisis has had a major impact in all areas of the economy from beginning of 2020 and the advertising is no exception to the same. Many brands from almost all industry have changed their advertising appeals post Covid-19; keeping the same in view an interesting study can be carried out by the future researchers. Further studies can also be carried out to see the change in the purchase behavior of consumers for the immunity booster products post Covid-19 pandemic situation.

References

Abideen, Z.U., & Saleem, S. (2011). Effective advertising campaign and its influence on consumer buying. Information Processing From Advertisements: Toward an Integrative Framework. Journal of Marketing, 53, 39-45.

Google Scholar

Berkowitz, D., Allaway, A., & D'souza, G. (2001). Estimating differential lag effects for multiple media across multiple stores. Journal of Advertising, 30(4), 59-65.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross Ref

Daramola, I. (2003). Introduction to Mass Communication (2nd ed.). Lagos: Rothan Press.

Donthu, N., & Gustafsson, A. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of business research, 117, 284-289.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross Ref

Doyle, P., & Saunders, J. (1990). Multiproduct advertising budgeting. Marketing Science, 9(2), 97-113.

Indexed at, Google Scholar, Cross Ref

Kotler, P. (2009). Marketing management: A south Asian perspective. Pearson Education India.

Indexed at, Google Scholar

Kumar, D.P., & Raju, K.V. (2013). The role of advertising in consumer decision making. IOSR Journal of Business and Management, 14(4), 37-45.

Indexed at, Google Scholar

Leandre R., Fabrigar L. R., Wegener D.T. (2012). Exploratory factor analysis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Google Scholar

Lee, E. (2013). Impacts of social media on consumer behavior: decision making process.

Google Scholar

Mendelson, A.L., & Bolls, P.D. (2009). Emotional effects of advertising on young adults of lower socio economicstatus. Retrieved on Dated, 01-05.

Google Scholar

Nunnally, J.C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Google Scholar, Cross Ref

Ryans, C. (1996). Consumer Resources. Journal of Small Business Management, 34, 63-65.

Vakratsas, D., & Ambler, T. (1999). How advertising works: what do we really know?. Journal of marketing, 63(1), 26-43.

Google Scholar, Cross Ref

Received: 09-Sep-2022, Manuscript No. AMSJ-22-12532; Editor assigned: 12-Sep-2022, PreQC No. AMSJ-22-12532(PQ); Reviewed: 26-Sep-2022, QC No. AMSJ-22-12532; Revised: 28-Oct-2022, Manuscript No. AMSJ-22-12532(R); Published: 30-Oct-2022