Download DECLARATION I declare that this research project is my original work... has not been presented for a degree award to any...

DECLARATION
I declare that this research project is my original work and to the best of my knowledge
has not been presented for a degree award to any other university.
Student’s Signature: ________________________
Date: _______________________
This research project has been submitted for examination with my approval as university
supervisor.
Supervisor’s Signature: _______________________
Date: _______________________
School of Art & Design
pg. i
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all I thank God Almighty for his immense help in my pursuit of higher education
at the University of Nairobi. I would also like to thank my beloved parents Mr. & Mrs.
Kithinji for their financial help, my siblings for their love and support together with all
others who assisted me in one way or the other. Finally my special thanks goes to my
supervisor Mr. Muriithi Kinyua for his tireless guidance throughout the journey of
carrying out this research from the initial step of developing the idea to completion of
the project.
God bless you all.
pg. ii
ABSTRACT
This research aims to find out the attitudes and perceptions that youth in Nairobi have
towards advertising on the social networking sites. Facebook was chosen due to the large
number of followers in Kenya, especially among the youth based on the findings of a
research done by Kenya ICT Board in 2009 to establish the popularity of social media in
Kenya. The study found Facebook to be the most popular social media accessed by 96%
of respondent. Using questionnaire as the instrument of mining data, the respondents were
sampled from the youth in three demographic groups namely: Students, Employed and
Self-Employed within the city of Nairobi. Their responses were then analyzed statistically
with the aim of finding out first; the extent of the use of Facebook, secondly; their general
attitudes and perceptions towards advertising on the social media in general and Facebook
in particular and thirdly; an inferential comparison on the responses among the three
demographic groups was done to find out how they differ. Finally the findings of the
survey were discussed and recommendation were stated.
Key Words: Internet, Social Media, Advertising, Facebook, Youth, Attitudes, Perceptions,
Demographic Group, Social Networking Sites, Students, Employed, Self-Employed, Nairobi
pg. iii
Table of Content
Declaration……………………………………………………………………………………..….i
Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………….............................ii
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………...iii
Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………………iv
List of Figures……………………………………………..……………………………………...vi
List of tables………………………………………………………………………………….…..vii
Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………………….....ix
Definition of terms….......................................................................................................x
Appendices..............................................................................................................…... xi
CHA PTER ONE: INTRODUCTION................................ ................................ .................. 1
1
OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background of the Study ......................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2
Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................................................... 4
1.3
Objectives of the Study ....................................................................................................................................... 4
Research Questions ............................................................................................................................................... 5
1.4
1.5
Hypothesis ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
1.6
Justific ation of the Study ..................................................................................................................................... 5
1.7
Significance of the S tudy ..................................................................................................................................... 5
1.8
Scope of the Study ................................................................................................................................................ 6
1.9
Limitations of the Study ...................................................................................................................................... 6
1.10
Conceptual Model ................................................................................................................................................ 7
CHA PTER TWO: REVIEW OF RE LEVANT LITERATURE ................................ .......................... 8
2
OVERVIEW........................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Advertising as a Marketing Tool ....................................................................................................................... 8
Develop ment of the Internet ...........................................................................................................................11
2.1
2.2
2.2.1
2.2.2
2.2.3
2.2.4
2.3
2.3.1
2.3.2
2.4
2.4.1
2.5
2.5.1
2.5.2
The History of Internet Advertising ................................................................................................................ 13
Evolution of Internet Advertising .................................................................................................................... 14
Characteristics of Internet Advertising ............................................................................................................ 16
Internet Advertising Format ............................................................................................................................. 19
Evolution of Web as an Advertising Platform ............................................................................................28
The Social Networking sites ............................................................................................................................. 28
The Social Media and Advertising ................................................................................................................... 31
Facebook Overview ...........................................................................................................................................34
Advertising on Facebook .................................................................................................................................. 37
Attitudes towards Advertising .........................................................................................................................43
Advertising Avoidance ...................................................................................................................................... 47
Ad Avoidance on the Internet ......................................................................................................................... 48
CHA PTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................ ............................... 50
3
OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................................................................................50
3.1
Research Design ...................................................................................................................................................50
3.2
Population and Sampling Frame ....................................................................................................................50
pg. iv
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
Sampling Design ...................................................................................................................................................51
Data Collection Instrument ..............................................................................................................................51
Data Analysis Method ........................................................................................................................................53
Data Presentation ................................................................................................................................................54
CHA PTER FOUR: DATA A NALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ................................ ... 55
4
OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................................................................................55
PART ONE: Results of Descriptive Analysis of the Respondents ..........................................................55
PART TWO: The Respondents Extent and use of Facebook as a Social Media ..............................62
Discussion and Interpretation of the Findings ............................................................................................80
4.1
4.2
4.3
CHA PTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMME NDATIONS AND CONCLUSION ................ 83
5
OVERVIEW.........................................................................................................................................................................83
5.1
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ...............................................................................................................................83
5.1.1
5.1.2
5.1.3
5.1.4
5.2
5.2.1
5.2.2
5.3
5.3.1
The extent and use of social media among the youth.................................................................................. 83
Facebook effects on youth buying behaviors ................................................................................................ 85
Youths attitudes and perceptions among the demographic groups............................................................ 87
How attitudes and perceptions differ among three demographic groups ................................................. 93
RECOMMENDATIONS .....................................................................................................................................94
Policy recommendations................................................................................................................................... 94
Recommendations for further studies ............................................................................................................. 94
CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................................................95
Limitations of the study .................................................................................................................................... 96
REFE RENCES ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 98
pg. v
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Conceptual Model……………….………………………………………………………..….7
Figure 2.1: A sample of a banner advert….……………………………………………………………14
Figure 2.2 : A sample of an email advert.…………………….……..….………………………………21
Figure 2.3 : A sample of mobile advert.………………………………………………………………...22
Figure 2.4: Samples of paid listing/organic listing advert.…….…....………………………………..23
Figure 2.5: IAB/PwC Ad Revenue Report……………………………………………………………..24
Figure 2.6: A sample of Mobile Device Advert...……...……………………………………………..25
Figure 2.7: A sample of Advert-gaming advert...………………...…………………………………..26
Figure 2.8: Comparison of internet advertising formats……………………………………………..27
Figure 2.9 : Geographic and psychological context...............................................................…...33
Figure 2.9 (a): Facebook “Wall Page” advertisement extract................................................…....39
Figure 2.9 (b): Facebook interface: the advertising spaces.….......................................................40
Figure 2.9 (c): Facebook “Page sponsored” advertisement extract spaces.…................................42
Figure 2.9(d): The push-pull model of marketing communication.…..........................................47
Figure 3.1: Research Design Process schematic…………………………………………………………55
Figure 4.1: Percentage of respondents by their age…………………………………………………..56
Figure 4.2: Percentage of respondents by gender…………………………………………………….57
Figure 4.3: Percentages of students respondents by type of institution attended……….…………58
Figure 4.4: Percentages of respondents by frequency of internet use……………………………….59
Figure 4.5: Percentages of respondents by the location of internet access…………………………60
Figure 4.6: Percentages of respondents by the devices they use……………………………...……..61
pg. vi
LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1: Percentage of respondents who have accounts with social networking
sites..………………………………………………………………………………….…………….…62
Table 4.2: Frequency at which respondents visit Facebook website when connected to
Internet…………………………………………………………………………………………….....63
Table 4.3: Percentage of respondent’s average number of friends on Facebook profile……..64
Table 4.4: Percentage of what respondent’s spend most time doing on
Facebook……………………………………………………………………………………….….....65
Table 4.5: Percentage of Number of Company Pages Respondents are Members…………....66
Table 4.6: Percentage of number of respondents who notices advertisement
messages………………………………………………………………………………………….......66
Table 4.7: Percentage of how respondents often come across advertisement messages….…..67
Table 4.8: Percentage of respondents who pay attention advertisement messages…..……....67
Table 4.9: Percentage of what prompt respondent to pay attention to advertisement
messages on Facebook…………………………………………………………………….………...68
Table 4.10: Percentage of what does not prompt respondent to pay attention to
advertisement on Facebook……………………………………………..………………….………69
Table 4.11: Percentage of how often respondent purchase goods based on advertisement
encountered on Facebook……………………………………………………………………….….70
Table 4.12: Percentage of respondents who have ever advertised anything of Facebook……70
Table 4.13: Percentage of respondents approach used to advertise on Facebook……………..71
Table 4.14: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising (Students)…….72
Table 4.15: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising (Employed)…..73
Table 4.16: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook adverting (Self Employed)............................................................................................................................74
Table 4.17: Descriptive of beliefs towards Facebook adverting in all demographic
groups………………………………………………………………………………………………....75
Table 4.18: ANOVA results on beliefs towards Facebook advertising in all demographic
groups………………………………………………………………………………………………....75
pg. vii
Table 4.19: Percentage of respondent’s Perceptions towards social media advertising
in general (Students)……………..…………………………………………………………….…...76
Table 4.20: Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards social media advertising
in general (Employed)……………………………………………………………………………..77
Table 4.21: Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards social media advertising
(Self- Employed)……………………………………………………………………………….…....78
Table 4.22: Descriptive on perceptions towards social media advertising on all
demographic groups………………………………………………………………………….…….79
Table 4.23: ANOVA results on perceptions towards social media advertising in general
on all demographic groups………………………………………………..……………………….79
pg. viii
ABBREVIATIONS
AIDA…………………..…………Action, Interest, Desire and Action
ANOVA………………………….One-Way Analysis of Variance
ARPANET………………………..The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
ATOA…………………………….Attitude towards Online Advertising
CASIE……………………………..Coalition for Advertising Support Information and Entertainment
CCK……………………………….Communication Commission of Kenya
CPM………………………………Cost Per Mille
CTR……………………………….Click Through Rates
DEL………………………….…….Digital Equipment Corporation
EASSy……………………………..The Eastern Africa Submarine System
FAST………………………………Future of Advertising Stakeholders
FNC……………………………….Federal Networking Council
HTML………………….…………Hyper Text Markup Language
IAB……………………….….……Internet Advertising Barrier
ICT…………………………….....Information Communication Technology
KDN……………………….……..Kenya Data Networks
SNS………………….……………Social Networking Sites
TCP/IP……………………………Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TEAMS……………………………The East African Marine System
URL………………….……………Uniform Resource Locater
USENET…………………………..User's Network
WWW……………………….......World Wide Web
pg. ix
Definition of Terms
Adver-gaming – is a new advertising media that is being used by many companies to
brand and market their products. This is basically a video game in form of an
advertisement.
Attitudes – A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards
something. Attitude influences an individual's choice of action.
Blog – a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or
small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
Cost per mille – a terminology that stands for cost per 1000 viewers. A mechanism used
to determine the cost of advertising on the internet.
Facebook – a popular free social networking website that allows registered users to
create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages and keep in touch with friends,
family and colleagues.
Graphic Interface – a computer program designed to allow use of icons and other visual
indicators to interact with users instead of using the only text based command line.
Impressions – the number of individuals who see an advert in their devices screen when
browsing. A mechanism used to determine the cost of advertising on the internet.
Online advertising – Use of internet as an advertising medium where promotional
messages appear on a computer screen.
Perception – the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.
Rich Media – Advertisements that incorporate animation, sound, and/or interactivity in
any format.
Social Media – a computer-mediated tools that allow internet users to create, share or
exchange information, ideas, and pictures/videos in virtual communities and networks.
Social Networking Site – a kind of a website described as a virtual community that allows
users to interact and share content with each other in an online environment.
Web 1.0 – a terminology that denotes the early version (classified as version 1) of web
technologies that offered one sided communication over the internet.
Web 2.0 – a version of web technologies that offer dynamic interactive environment e.g.
a comment system and sharing of content.
Website – an interconnection of web pages usually containing hyperlinks to each other
and made available online by an individual, company, educational institution,
government, or organization.
World Wide Web – is an information space where documents and other web
resources are identified by URIs, interlinked by hypertext links, and can be accessed via
the Internet.
pg. x
APPENDENCES
Appendix i: Questionnaire……………………………………………………………………….105
Appendix ii: Letter to respondents for questionnaire administration………………………..108
Appendix iii: Research budget…..……………………………………………………………….109
pg. xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1
Overview
This chapter discusses the background of the study by looking at the state of internet
access in Kenya in order to understand the arising phenomena of online advertising in
particular on the social media. The statement of the problem is also outlined, objectives
specified, the scope, limitations and justification of the study stated.
1.1
Background of the Study
Although TV and print media are the two preferred mediums of advertising in general,
today Internet is emerging as a major competitor. According to the latest IAB internet
Advertising Revenue Report (2014), Internet advertising revenues in the United States
increased by 14% in the fourth quarter of 2013 with a full year internet advertising
revenues totaling to $42.78 billion which is a 17% increase from the $36.57 billion
reported in 2012.
While the use of the internet was initially restricted by ARPANET, the first example of
online advertising was posted via electronic mail by Gary Thuerk, the marketer for Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEL) in 1990. The development of World Wide Web (WWW) in
1989 by a British Physicist Tim Berners-Lee changed the sharing and dissemination of
information worldwide. The graphical interface innovation made the Internet much more
user friendly and by the mid-1990s, many businesses and consumers began to use the
technology. Today internet is a world-wide broadcasting capability, a mechanism for
information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and interaction between
pg. 1
individuals and their computers without regard for geographic location (Leiner et al.,
2009).
The innovation of the World Wide Web has provided a flexible platform for
advertising over the internet infrastructure. Bergemann and Bonatti (2011) argue that this
has allowed many advertisers to address a targeted audience beyond the reach of
traditional media. According to Kotler and Armstrong (2010), a new version of the internet
referred to as web 2.0 has emerged and involves a more reasoned and balanced approach
to marketing online. It offers a set of new web technologies for connecting with customers,
such as Weblogs (blogs) and Vlogs (Video-based-blogs), social-networking sites, and video
sharing sites. The interactive, community building nature of these new technologies makes
them ideal for relating with customers.
Among all platforms enabled by advancement of Web 2.0, social media is perhaps the
most significant application that has grown exponentially in many population segments
with Facebook emerging as the most popular with a following of 845 million monthly
active users worldwide of whom over half (425 million) logged into the Social Networking
Sites every day (Facebook, 2012). Facebook Annual Report of 2013 confirms that
Facebook generates substantial majority of its revenue from selling advertising placements
to marketers. This SNS focuses on providing value for all kinds of marketers including brand
marketers, direct marketers, small and medium-sized businesses, and developers (Facebook
2013). In Kenya, Facebook started gaining popularity in 2006 and by 2013 it had amassed
2,018,560 users, a representation of 19.24 per cent of the online population.
pg. 2
Although the high rate of internet connectivity across the country has seen millions of
Kenyans get access, online advertising still remains unexplored. The government efforts to
connect Kenya to the rest of the world via high speed fiber optic cables registered the first
success when the TEAMS cable landed in Mombasa in 12th June 2009, The SEACOM cable
in July 2009 and The EASSy cable in 16th July 2009. This increased internet coverage in
Kenya to over 5000 kilometers of terrestrial cable all around with over 500 kilometers of
metropolitan fiber optic cable in Nairobi, 50 in Kisumu and Mombasa, 20 in Nakuru,
Eldoret and Thika. In addition Kenya Data Networks (KDN) has extend this coverage to
other towns in Kenya. Private companies like Safaricom have also provided alternative
forms of connectivity e.g. wireless internet access.
According to a Quarterly Sector Statistics Report 2011/12 by Communication
Commission of Kenya (CCK), Internet has become an important tool of accessing
information and communicating. Its usage has been on the rise with the quarter (2012)
under review recording estimated 17.38 million users representing an increase of 21.55 per
cent from the previous period. This translates to 44.12 per cent of the population that has
access to the Internet with majority accessing the service through mobile phones. Despite
the tremendous growth in ICT, marketers in Kenya are yet to tap into the power of online
advertising as it is the trend in the western countries.
The use of internet in Kenya especially among the youth continues to grow. A recent
study by the Consumer Insight titled Holla (2013) reveals that Kenyan urban youth spend
at least $250 million (Sh2.2 billion) annually to purchase data for accessing Facebook and
Twitter on their mobile phones. The study which targeted 1,301 respondents aged between
pg. 3
7 and 25 years from seven major urban areas: Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, Nakuru,
Eldoret, Nyeri and Meru reveals that 87 per cent strictly used internet for social interaction
with 57 per cent using it to download music, while only 55 per cent used internet to send
email.
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Although internet advertising is gaining acceptance among consumers in Kenya and
people are evidently spending most of their browsing time on the social networking sites
(especially the youth), there is a knowledge gap that need to be filled through researching
on various internet user aspects of online advertising e.g. their knowledge of advertising
platforms such as social media, their attitudes and perceptions towards internet advertising
specifically in different user demographics.
1.3
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this research is to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of
the youth towards advertising on the social media, particularly Facebook.
The Specific objectives are to:

Establish the extent and use of Facebook among the Nairobi youth

Establish whether Facebook has an effect on youth buying behavior

Establish the extent to which attitudes and perception towards social media
advertising differ among the youth.
pg. 4
1.4
Research Questions
The proposed investigation will try to answer the following questions:

What is the extent and use of Facebook as a social networking site among the youth
in Nairobi?

To what extent does advertising on Facebook influence youth buying behaviors?

To what extent does the youth’s attitudes and perceptions towards social media
advertising differ among demographic groups?
1.5
Hypothesis
The attitudes and perceptions that youth in Nairobi have towards advertising on the social
media and in particular Facebook differ across the three demographic groups.
1.6
Justification of the S tudy
A study of online advertising is important for the following reasons; first most young
people in urban centers subscribe to social networking sites especially Facebook and
Twitter which are also platforms for advertising online among the youth. Secondly,
adequate research on the implication of advertising on the social media in Kenya, especially
among the youth is scarce.
1.7
Significance of the S tudy
Understanding online social networking sites and how advertising is perceived on the
social media is an important area of research for academic, government and marketers
alike. This is because the finding of this research will provide knowledge towards improved
pg. 5
media efficiency in advertising and spur creative direction to advertisers and enlightenment
to consumers. The findings will be beneficial to different entities as following:
The Kenyan Marketer – the findings of this study will avail information to help marketers
when deciding on weights to give to social media advertising in apportionment of the total
promotional budgets.
The Government – the need to monitor consumer attitudes towards online advertising in
order to regulate online advertising practice in Kenya especially regulating advertising on
Facebook.
The Advertising industry – the findings of the study will help advertising agencies in creating
adverts that meet the expectations of the emerging social media community.
The Researcher/Scholars – this research will open other gaps that spur more research in this
field.
1.8
Scope of the Study
The research covers the perceptions and attitudes that youth have towards advertising
on their online social networking personal space. The people surveyed will be youth aged
between 19 to 34 years who have subscribed to Facebook and live within the city of
Nairobi. Facebook is appropriate for this study because it enjoys a large following among
the youth in Kenya. The city of Nairobi on the other hand is home to many technology
savvy youth in Kenya.
1.9
Limitations of the Study
The research is limited to the youth studying and working within the city of Nairobi.
This study being academic in nature (and therefore carried out under constrained funds)
pg. 6
might not be comprehensive enough to give a generalization of its findings within the
entire nation of Kenya due to the following:

Inadequate time; the research has a specific academic time-frame in which the study
must be carried out

Non occupied youths who use Facebook were not considered in the survey

Limitation of resources. It will be constrained by lack of availability of ICT
publications locally

Incomplete responses from respondents who might not have enough time to
respond to all the questions due to the comprehensive nature of the research.
1.10 Conceptual Model
This study is based on a proposed model of ATOA (Attitude Towards Online
Advertising) in a cross-cultural context. Figure 1.1 below presents the conceptual model
underlying the study as per existing literature. The model posits that belief factors (e.g.,
information, entertainment) influence ATOA, which in turn affects consumers’ behavioral
responses. The model also theorizes that culture influence belief factors, ATOA, and
consumer responses. As discussed above, past research suggests consumers’ beliefs about
online advertising are positively associated with their ATOA.
Beliefs e.g. Information,
Entertainment etc.
Attitudes towards
Advertising
Behavior Responses
Figure 1.1: Conceptual Model adopted from Azeem and Haq (2012)
pg. 7
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELEVANT LITERATURE
2
Overview
This section details the theoretical framework that provides the researcher with the
required background for investigating the perceptions and attitudes of young people
towards advertising on the social media. The review starts by providing a brief background
of advertising as a tool of marketing through establishing the arising differences between
traditional and online advertising. Secondly, the origin and evolution of internet
advertising is discussed and a comparison between the different internet advertising
formats explained with the aim of finding out the differences that have arisen as advertising
in general evolves over time. Also forming a key part of review is the evolution of internet
technology that led to the emergence of social networking sites as the new avenues of
online advertising. Thirdly, the general attitudes of consumers towards advertising are
established together with advertising avoidance, a phenomena common in online
advertising, is discussed as a core concern in internet advertising strategies. All these areas
of literature are referenced with a view to establishing a background for studying the
attitudes and perceptions of advertising over the social media with a focus on Facebook.
2.1
Advertising as a Marketing T ool
Kotler and Armstrong (2010) defines marketing as the process by which companies
create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value
from customers in return. To give a simpler definition, McDaniel and Gitman (2008)
defines marketing as the process of getting the right goods and services to the right people
pg. 8
at the right place, time and price, using the right promotion techniques. This concept is
called “right” principle. They urge that today’s best organizations have adapted the
marketing concept, which involves identifying customer needs and then producing the
goods or services that will satisfy them while making profit. Today advertising remains one
of the key elements of marketing.
There exist many definitions of advertising. According to Vysekalova (2011) what the
above definitions have in common is the fact that advertising is a communication between
sponsors and to whom are the products or services offered through any medium with
commercial aim. To make this communication link understandable, Richard and Curran
(2002) states that advertising is a paid, mediated form of communication from identifiable
sources, designed to persuade the receiver to take some action, now or in the future.
‘Mediated communication’ in this case is clarified as that which is conveyed to an audience
through print, electronics or any method other than direct person-to-person contact.
Today advertising is considered a key component of what is known as the marketing
communication mix where Belch and Belch (2004) argue that advertising has the ability to
reach a wide audience in a cost effective manner, creating brand awareness and incite
reaction or action from customers. The objectives of advertising are however closely
linked with the strategy of the firm on which it is based (Johnova 2008). Johnova states
that this may be in areas of awareness about the firm, its knowledge, popularity, belief,
intent, or about its activities.
pg. 9
Building on the concept of advertising Dudinska (2000) states that the role of
advertising on the product life circle (based on the primary goal of adverting message) can
be defined as follows:

Informative aims – where advertising informs the public about new product and its
features. The sole purpose of this being to raise demand and interest

Persuasive advertising – aims to bring success in a period of increased
competitiveness where the pressure to convince customers to buy products becomes
necessary

Reminder advertising – purposes to keep a company’s products and it brand in the
mind of customer before upcoming season.
Bacik, Fedorko and Simovas (2012) argue that advertising can influence human
behavior only if it passes the adoption process (is perceived) and processing (is understood)
i.e. one can create an internal mental image of the message in the advertising. Vysekalova
(2006) supports these facts by further arguing that positive advertising affects a person
only when the picture is connecting the current message with past experience, past
perceptions and has motivating quality that becomes an incentive to purchase a product
or a service.
On the other hand advertising has taken a shift in today’s market mainly due to
advancement in technology inventions which has led to creation of entirely different
vehicles of advertising. Among the modern concerns that markets are still trying to come
to terms with is the phenomena of online advertising in particular the social media. In
pg. 10
order to explore advertising over this new vehicle, it is critical to understand the internet
and the technologies that revolve around it making it the undisputable channel of
advertising.
2.2 Development of the Internet
Leiner et al., (2009) observes that the communications world has been revolutionized
by Internet like nothing before. But to understand internet advertising, it is prudent first to
separate the two terms; internet and advertising and define them independently before
exploring the concept of internet advertising. First, what is Internet? On October 24, 1995,
the Federal Networking Council (FNC) unanimously passed a resolution defining the term
Internet.
The council agreed that the following language reflects their definition of the term
"Internet". Internet (according to FNC) refers to the global information system that: First;
is logically linked together by a globally unique address space based on the Internet
Protocol (IP) or its subsequent extensions/follow-ons. Second, is able to support
communications using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite
or its subsequent extensions/follow-on, and/or other IP-compatible protocols and thirdly,
provides uses or makes accessible, either publicly or privately, high level services layered
on the communications and related infrastructure described herein (NITRD, 1995). This
technical definition can be deduced to simply define internet as the “network of networks”
that operates on a set of technical protocols that enable people from around the world to
access and exchange information using tools such as the World Wide Web, e-mail, chat
rooms, etc.
pg. 11
The genesis of internet (Paul 1996) is traced back to the year 1968 as the International
Electronic Network. According to Almagor (2011) internet was developed through research
grants from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency by
Scientists who wished to maintain communication links between distant locations in the
event of an electrical rout. Although Almagor argue that the early Internet was devised
and implemented in American research units, universities, and telecommunication
companies that had vision and interest in cutting-edge research, Clinton and Gore (1997)
gives credit to the World Wide Web Consortium Director Tim Berners-Lee as the
“Inventor” of the internet. Nevertheless the program grew in the 60s and 70s, becoming
a network of computers that transmitted information by “packet switching.” Leiner et al
(2009) on the other hand urge that internet began as a project of the United States military
establishment that wanted a communication system that was robust and non-centralized.
The communication protocol (TCP/IP) was in operation by the 1970s, then this
technological outburst, referred to by some as the computer revolution or the Internet
revolution, created a global network of computers (and later on, advanced mobile
communication devices such as smart-phones, tablet computers, etc.) which allow instant
connectivity, ignoring geographical barriers or distances which had previously served as
impeding factors in any type of international transaction (Prussak, 2013).
The graphical interface innovation made the Internet much more user friendly and by
the mid-1990s, many businesses and consumers began to use the technology. Barr (2000)
states that today internet has become a myriad of networked interconnected computers
forming an open communication medium which has proved to be essential and without
regard to geographic location (Leiner et al., 2009).
pg. 12
2.2.1 The History of Internet Advertising
Richards and Curran (2002) states that “Advertising is a paid, mediated form of
communication from an identifiable source, designed to persuade the receiver to take some
action now or in the future.” It would therefore seem moderately logical to define Internet
advertising as any form of communication that meets the definition of advertising and can
be found on the Internet. However McMillan (2004) argues that though this sounds
simple, Internet advertising is a multi-faceted phenomenon. He states that the same could
be said of many other kinds of advertising. Print advertising comes in many colors, shapes,
and sizes while television advertising might range from a simple 10-second message to a
long-format infomercial. Internet advertising has all these kinds of variations too but also
spans time and space (unlike print which is space bound and broadcast which is time
bound) and seems different in other fundamental ways as well (McMillan 2004).
The first publicized example of online advertising was conducted via electronic mail
when a marketer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEL), Gary Thuerk, sent an email
to most of the ARPANET’S American West Coast users, advertising an open house for a
new model of DEL computers, see Figure 2.1 below. Though a number of recipients were
okay with the notification, the majority were not pleased with Thuerk’s access into their
computers and for the unsolicited contacts. However the first known large-scale noncommercial spam (an unsolicited often commercial, message transmitted through the
internet as a mass mailing to a large number of recipients) message was sent on 18 th January
by an Andrews university systems administrator by cross-posting a religious message to all
USENET Group (Microsoft 2009).
pg. 13
Figure 2.1: Adopted from www.AdPushup.htm (2014).
2.2.2 Evolution of Internet Advertising
Before the early 1990s, the internet was for the most part a closed network with access
restrictions, and commercial uses were forbidden by the Acceptable Use Policy of the U.S.
National Science Foundation. However In the middle of the decade, the internet was
opened to commercial operations through a process of privatization that affected all levels
of the net - from infrastructure to content - and advertising soon became a significant
source of revenue (Bermejo, 2011). Evans (2009) states that online advertising started in
1994 when HotWired, a web magazine, sold a banner ad to American multinational
telecommunications corporation and displayed it on their web page. The ad was sold
based on the number of “impressions” i.e. the number of individuals who saw the ad.
Many web ads were subsequently sold based on “cost per mille,” a terminology that stands
for cost per 1000 viewers of the advertisement and often referred to as CPM. The
pg. 14
exploding supply of web pages led to the birth, in 1994, of several search engines that also
sold advertising to make money. At first, they sold banner ads on a cost-per-mille basis.
However that approach led to a conflict for the search engines between helping people
find things quickly and keeping eyeballs trained on the ads.
According to Bermejo (2011) the advertising industry made a concerted effort to
rationalize online advertising and permeate the internet. This effort included the creation
of a series of ad-hoc organizations such as the Coalition for Advertising Supported
Information and Entertainment (CASIE), the Future of Advertising Stakeholders (FAST),
and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) - aimed at promoting a regulatory framework
for the advertising industry endorsing advertising as an essential element of online
communication and businesses, and creating the necessary tools for online advertising.
Bermejo (2011) states that these tools included the development of an online audience
ratings system, to guarantee advertisers that they were getting what they were paying for,
and to allow targeted ads based on socio-demographic characteristics.
Evans (2009) states that during this period, fairly traditional methods of advertising
were mimicked on the web. These included web versions of business directories similar to
the yellow pages such as yellowpages.com; web versions of newspaper, classified ads such
as Dairy Nation online etc. In U.S.A, online advertising revenue increased from $8.1 billion
in 2000 to $21.2 billion in 2007 and from 3.2 percent of all advertising to 8.8 per cent
over the same period (based on Interactive Advertising Bureau Press Releases 2000-2007).
pg. 15
According to Hart (2007) the rapid growth in online social networking communities
has caught the attention of advertisers and are now harnessing their potential for
advertising purposes. However the case, there is little academic research addressing
community organizers on how to convince users to be more receptive to advertising in
online social communities (Zeng et al., 2009).
Since banners and buttons have become a prevalent form of promotion on the web,
the main goal of Web banners is to inform users about the existence of particular Web
sites, products/services and to persuade customers to visit the advertised sites (Azeem and
Haq, 2012). Research done within the dispensation of static websites (i.e. website created
using web 1.0 technologies) reveals that user’s reaction to banners had been
disappointingly low. Azeem and Haq concurs with the findings of Nielsen (1997) that clickthrough rates constantly decreased from 2% (1995) to 0.5% (Oct. 1998), and reached
0.2% in May 2000. This trend was later turned around in 2001 as web technologies turned
web advertising platforms from static to more interactive ones.
2.2.3 Characteristics of Internet Advertising
As new methods of advertising on the Internet are developed, Internet advertising is
becoming more diverse. It includes all the aspects of traditional advertising as well as many
functions that were previously relegated to specialists e.g. direct marketing and retail
marketing. While the bulk of the advertising literature focuses primarily on Internet-based
brand-building messages, advertising scholars are also recognizing the importance of
pg. 16
features that make this new advertising media unique. The following characteristics are
viewed as the most important:
Interactivity: Carriers of online advertising are basically multimedia and hypertext
documents. If consumers are interested in a specific product, they can explore detailed
information by just clicking the mouse, so as to “experience” in person the product, service
and brand. New technologies and applications such as virtual reality can be used in online
advertising; this allows customers to experience goods or service, and conduct booking,
transaction and settlement on the Internet. Interactivity is a multi-faceted concept that
involves two-way communication, control and engagement, and timely information.
Practitioners see the future of Internet advertising as being more interactive with increases
on all of these dimensions.
One of the keys to successful Internet advertising is the ability to enable and encourage
consumer interaction with brands. As advancements in digital technology continue,
consumers are demanding more interactivity with the brands they patronize. Internet
advertising is becoming more ‘real time’ and response rates and interaction with the
consumer is taking on a complete one-to-one experience.
Interactive marketing gives the consumer new levels of control. Successful online
marketers communicate and demonstrate value to the consumer to capture their interests
and develop ongoing two-way relationships. Corporate communication must increase
interactivity by moving away from simple online brochures to communication that allows
consumers to engage and build relationships with brands. Direct response must lead
pg. 17
directly to transaction and those transactions must allow for full-featured consumer
interactions (Silk et al. 2001).
Intrusiveness: McMillan (2004) states that researchers have examined intrusiveness or
lack of it, as a unique characteristic of internet advertising. Although some felt that it lacked
enough intrusiveness to be effective. McDonald (1997) urges that an internet message
intended to persuade is often positioned at least one click away from the banner, hyperlink
etc. contrary to that, intrusiveness in internet advertising is becoming a big concern with
pop-up ads that appear on top of a message, pop-under ads that stay on a screen after
target Website is closed, interstitial ads that take over the screen etc. (McMillan, 2004).
This Intrusiveness has been found to be a direct cause of advertising annoyance with the
degree of forced exposure to banner ads. Schumann and Thorson (2007) observe that
banner ad presented in the format of the highest forced-exposure level also yielded the
most desirable advertising effects. Today internet surfing experience is marred with adverts
in form of pop-up widows and short video adverts preceding a user’s target videos
especially on YouTube. Recent research suggests that these more intrusive forms can lead
to irritation and ad avoidance (Edwards, Li, & Lee, 2002).
Personalization: Practitioners predicted that the trend to personalized Internet
advertising would continue. For many, this was a counterpoint to intrusiveness. The more
personalized the content, the less likely it is to be perceived as intrusive. Tracking and
measurement is key to being able to build personalized communication. Schumann and
Thorson (2007) states that messages placed in non-advertiser sites can easily be
personalized if marketers buy advertising based on specific viewers in specific situations
pg. 18
rather than simply buying time and/or space on a content provider’s Web site. Schumann
and Thorson further argue that if the messages based in external content environments are
more personalized, they may be not only less intrusive but more effective allowing
marketers to have more control over the location. In these environments, communication
can be customized so that consumers consistently see the information that is most valuable
to them.
Independence: Online advertising belongs to on-demand advertising, featuring the
nature of newspaper classification advertising. It enables free viewing and collectively
presents information needed saving time and avoids vain and passive attention
concentration. This is unlike newspaper, magazine, TV, radio, and outdoor advertising
which absorb user’s vision and hearing and compulsively instilling content to the brain.
Statistical Accuracy: Online advertising can allow marketers to conduct accurate
statistics on how many times the user is exposed to advertisement, how many further clicks
user makes after they are interested in the advertisement, and when and where these users
look up the advertisement. This can help customers correctly evaluate advertising effects.
This is unlike traditional advertising.
2.2.4 Internet Advertising Format
According to Silk et al. (2001) the range of advertising formats has exploded as a result
of increased sophisticated Internet audience, increased internet access through bandwidth
connections and influx of talent ready to exploit the creative potential of digital possibilities
of web advertising. The following is the current array of internet advertising formats:
pg. 19
Banners: The early days of internet advertising are synonymous with banner ads usually a rectangular ad placed within another content page where a viewer clicks on the
particular banner and he is directed to the advertiser’s web page, see an example on Figure
2.2 below. They can be static or animated and interactive. The newest “rich media”
banners allow users to interact with ads without leaving the current Web site. Advertisers
are devoting increasing amounts of resources to creating ads that will attract attention,
especially as click-through rates for traditional banner ads decline. This has been attributed
to several factors, including: consumer advertising overload and more directed search on
the Internet by consumers. On-line advertiser quest to combat consumer inattention has
stimulated efforts to improve banner ads through the use of animation, graphics, and
entertainment (Silk et al. 2001).
pg. 20
Figure 2.2: Extracted from http://www.businessdictionary.com (2015)
Email: Banner ads, links, or advertiser sponsorships that appear in email newsletters,
email marketing campaigns, and other commercial email communications. See Figure 2.3
blow. This format includes all types of electronic mail e.g. basic text or HTML-enabled.
Direct e-mail is usually sent to consumers who have requested product-related news, while
sponsored e-mail is sent to consumers who are subscribers to a specific content-focused
pg. 21
electronic publication. According to Silk et al. (2001) a recent Jupiter Report suggests that
direct e-mail can cost as little as a tenth of the charge for traditional direct mail.
Figure 2.3: Extracted from: https://us-mg6.mail.yahoo.com (2015)
Search: Fees advertisers pay Internet companies to list and/or link their company site
domain name to a specific search word or phrase (includes paid search revenues) is
enormous. Search categories as shown in Figure 2.4 below include: Paid listings: - text links
appear at the top or side of search results for specific keywords. The more a marketer pays,
the higher the position it gets. Marketers pay only when a user clicks on the text link.
Organic listing: comprise webpage listings that are based on a user’s search. All the listings
pg. 22
are determined by the engine's search algorithms. According to Internet Ad Revenue report
(2013) Search continues to lead ad formats, see Figure 2.5.
Figure 2.4: Extracted from http://www.enhancify.co.uk (2015)
pg. 23
Figure 2.5: Adopted from IAB/PwC Internet Ad Revenue Report ( 2013)
Mobile Advertising: Advertising tailored to and delivered through wireless mobile
devices such as smartphones (e.g. Blackberry, iPhone, Android), feature phones (e.g. lowerend mobile phones capable of accessing mobile content), and media tablets e.g. iPad,
Samsung Galaxy Tab. Typically taking the form of static or rich media display ads, text
messaging ads, search ads, or audio/video spots, such advertising generally appears within
mobile websites i.e. websites optimized for viewing on mobile devices, mobile
applications. See Figure 2.6 below which shows a Coca Cola advert designed specifically
for mobile devices.
pg. 24
Figure 2.6: Extracted from http://ibrandstudio.com (2015)
Interstitials: These are pop-up animated ads that appear in full screen without any user
action to activate them. They are short, animated messages which may interrupt the user’s
current tasks. Forms of interstitials can include splash screens, page takeovers, and pop-up
windows. Silk et al. (2001) urges that with sponsorships, advertisers offer content that is
somehow related to their products or services and valued by the target audience. For
example, pharmaceutical companies may sponsor bulletin boards where consumers with
specific ailments can share information and offer support.
Digital Video Commercials: TV-like advertisements that may appear as in-page video
commercials or before, during, and/or after a variety of content in a player environment
including but not limited to streaming video, animation, gaming, and music video content.
This definition includes digital video commercials that appear in live, archived, and
downloadable streaming content.
pg. 25
Sponsorship: - Represents custom content and/or experiences created for an advertiser,
which may or may not include ad elements such as display advertising, brand logos,
advertorial, or pre-roll video. Sponsorships fall into several categories: (1) Spotlights: are
custom-built pages incorporating an advertiser’s brand and housing a collection of content
usually around a theme. (2) Adver-gaming: can range from an advertiser buying all the ad
units around a game or a “sponsored by” link to creating a custom branded game
experience. Figure 2.7 below shows the interface for the Fanta (a product of coca cola)
gutter hero world tour of 2009 adver-gaming campaign.
Figure 2.7: Extracted from http://2.bp.blogspot.com (2015)
(3) Content & Section Sponsorship: is when an advertiser exclusively sponsors a
particular section of the site with the advertiser’s branding e.g. Facebook.com which
reserves the right-hand side as a section for placing advertisements. See Figure 2.7.
pg. 26
Rich Media: Advertisements that incorporate animation, sound, and/or interactivity in
any format. It can be used either singularly or in combination with the following
technologies: sound, Flash, and with programming languages such as Java and JavaScript.
It is deployed via standard Web and wireless applications including e-mail, static (e.g.
.html) and dynamic (e.g. .asp) Web pages, and may appear in ad formats such as banners,
buttons, and interstitials.
Other upcoming formats of online advertising includes Lead Generation: - Fees
advertisers pay to Internet advertising companies that refer qualified purchase inquiries or
provide consumer information (demographic, contact, behavioral) where the consumer
opts into being contacted by a marketer. These processes are priced on a performance basis
(e.g. cost-per action, -lead or -inquiry) and can include user applications e.g. for a credit
card, surveys, contests e.g. sweepstakes or registrations. Finally, Figure 2.8 below is a
summary of a few comparison between the different forms of internet advertising.
Format
Comparable formats in
traditional media
Banners
Magazine/newspaper ads
Interstitials
Television ads
Sponsorships
Promotions/Sponsorships
Directories
Yellow Pages
Email
Direct mail
Web Site
Retail display/ merchandising
Figure 2.8
pg. 27
2.3 Evolution of Web as an Advertising P latform
The World Wide Web, commonly abbreviated as WWW, is an infrastructure that takes
advantage of a global computer network that connects thousands of computers
throughout the world making sharing information both easy and attractive by combining
text, graphics, sound, and film clips into a single multimedia document.
The ability of the web to use hypertext links to connect to other sites around has
encouraged a lot of people and many organizations to place information on the Web
(Çuhadar, 2005). The dynamic nature of advertising on the web is synonymous with the
evolution of web technologies. The technologies that propelled the web early on are classified as version 1 - commonly referred to as web 1.0. The term Web 2.0 was coined
to popularize trends in the internet that marked post dot com revolution in 2001. Web
1.0, the predecessor of Web 2.0, had one sided communication from the website owner
where visitors could only read content published by the authors for example advertising
(O’Reilly, 2005). Web 2.0 on the other hand revolutionized how users interact on the
web platform especially on matters advertising. Today customers are able to give a
firsthand feedback through a mechanism called comment or like/dislike on products or
services being advertised on the web especially over the social media platforms.
2.3.1 The Social Networking sites
Social Networking Sites (SNS) are a type of virtual community that allows users to
interact and share content with each other in an online environment. They are heavily user
centered and user driven. Social networking sites share in the features of virtual
pg. 28
communities. A widely-used definition is provided by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who
characterizes SNS as web-based services that allow individuals to:

construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system;

articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection; and

view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the
system.
Barreto (2013) explains that while social networks refers to the interconnection of
nodes, the expressions “social networking sites”, “social network sites” refers to the specific
online software that are synonymous with web 2.0 capacity to allow social interaction
between individuals on the online environment. Although the term social network has
been carried along through the human civilization, nowadays the term is popularly used
interchangeably with the term social networking sites.
According to Lenhart and Madden (2007), SNS are effective platforms on which
individuals create visible personal profiles, build personal networks and maintain social
relationships. Stenger and Coutant (2009) on the other hand claim that SNS are not
focused on any particular activity. Barreto (2013) argue that the definition given by Lenhart
and Madden (2007) focus on the role of SNS as a social communication platform between
members of a social network and thus neglect the new found use of SNS especially by
organizations who rely on the very platform to communicate and engage with target
audiences. It is on this account that Barrote (2013) goes on to suggests a more complete
definition of SNS as: “Web-based services with three main functions: personal, social and
pg. 29
in some cases, ‘infomercial’”. Infomercial can be viewed as the newest function of SNS if
examined in the light of the increased interest and participation of private and public
organization in its use. Barrote (2013) also argue that SNS can be described as a
“infomercial” medium through which brands share information with users whether
consumers/clients or not.
SNS such as Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn continue to amass popularity and attract
millions of users in various age groups, Lorenzo-Romero et al (2011) argue that the
perceived usefulness of SNS have a direct impact on intention to use them and indirect
impact through attitude. In additional to this, various studies (Boyd and Ellison, 2007;
Lenhart and Madden, 2007; Pinho and Soares, 2011 and Barrote, 2013) conclude that SNS
are easy to use.
Study carried out by Wangiku (2011) revels that social networking sites have turned
out into platforms of marketing. Many of SNS rely on advertising revenue because they
are free for their members to join. The revenue is mostly generated from demographic
information they collect from their members and sell to advertisers who are able to target
their advertisements to a particular audience.
Based on recent research (Kodjamanis and Angelopoulos, 2013) it can be argued that
social networking sites form undisputable medium for promoting products and services
and in effect increase consumption and brand awareness. Chan (2012) states that paying
for advertisement placement on SNS is one obvious tactic and this method has been
exploited to a greater extent by commercial enterprises. Boyd and Ellison (2007) support
pg. 30
the argument that social networking potential to reach consumers directly and in their
private environment has meant that marketers are keen to advertise in this new medium.
2.3.2 The Social Media and Advertising
Berthon et al. (2012) defines social media as a series of technological innovations both
hardware and software that facilitate online content creation, interaction and
interoperability of online users in an inexpensive way. As the World Wide Web continues
to evolve, the usage pattern of Internet users has shifted from that of passive readings to
active building of contents, illustrating the user-centric, interactive and collaborative nature
of Web 2.0 capabilities (Sharma, 2008). Among all platforms enabled by the advancement
of Web 2.0, social media is perhaps the most significant application that has grown
exponentially in many population segments.
According to Mayfield (2008), the characteristics of social media include: Participation,
Openness, Conversation, Community and Connectedness. Most kinds of social media
make use of links to other sites, resources and people. Basic forms of social media are blogs,
Social network sites e.g. Facebook, Myspace, wikis, podcast, micro blogging e.g. tweeter,
content communities e.g. YouTube, forums etc. Barnes et al. (2012) observes that there is
trend towards social media usage among corporations as well as individual brands. He
points to a study conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth which reveals
that among the so called Fortune 500 companies in the USA, as many as 73 percent of
them have official corporate account in Twitter while 66 percent have a corporate
Facebook page.
pg. 31
Though to date advertising on the internet is a heavily researched topic in international
advertising, the opposite is true for social media advertising. Okazaki & Taylor (2013) state
that there has only been a limited number of cross-national or cross-cultural studies on this
topic. He argues that this could be due to the fact that researchers might view
internationalization of social media as being premature in light of the very recent evolution
of social media as a significant advertising platform.
Based on the fact that only limited research has been done on social media advertising,
there is lack of clear theoretical perspective from which research hypotheses can be
formulated and tested by an empirical study. As Okazaki & Taylor (2013) point out, a
theoretical development in a research area is often cumulative, and takes time for useful
theories to be articulated in the literature. Nevertheless some studies carried out on this
area has been based on the perspective of three principal theoretical foundation:
Networking Capability, Image Transferability, and Personal Extensibility. See the
conceptual framework on Figure 2.9 below as used by Okazaki & Taylor (2013) in their
study: “Social media and international advertising: theoretical challenges and future
directions”.
pg. 32
Geographical and psychological context
Networking
capability
Image
transferability
Personal
extensibility
Figure 2.9 : Adopted from Okazaki & Taylor (2013)
In this theory, Networking Capacity is the foundation because it is the most capitalized
upon benefit of web 2.0 technologies. It is upon this functionality that consumers are in
control of how information is generated, created, organized and shared. Web 2.0 has
made it possible for large and small firms to establish social networks among users and thus
reach the largest communities with their brands (Bell and Loane, 2010).
On the other hand, Image Transferability is the second principal on this theory based
on the fact that this capacity (web 2.0 is rich with image sharing functionalities)facilitates a
crucial aspect of brand image construction where images hold the key to attract similar
consumer segments across borders (Okazaki et al, 2006). Finally, Personal Extensibility is
the principal which is easily justified by the fact that what sets social media apart from
pg. 33
traditional media is its high mobility nature based on the design and capacity of web 2.0
(Parameswaran and Whinston, 2007).
Though such a theory is applicable locally, the aspect of scarcity of research carried out
to establish the use of social media for advertising remains one of the key concerns for
advertisers in Kenya. It seems that at this day and age, the studies being done are those
aimed at finding out the popularity of social media platforms. An example of such studies
according to Njonjo (2010) was done in 2009 by TNS Research International and Kenya
ICT Board with a view to establishing the popularity of social media in Kenya. The findings
were as follows: Facebook is the most popular social media accessed by 96% of the
respondents followed by Hi5 (38%), twitter (37%), LinkedIn (30%), YouTube (30%),
Tagged (23%), Yahoo 360 (20%), Myspace (20%) and others (10%).
2.4 Facebook Overview
Facebook was developed by Mark Zuckerberg, a then student at Harvard University
in 2004 with the sole intention of helping fellow students at the university to communicate
efficiently with each other (Krivak, 2008). In their book “The Ultimate Guide to Facebook
Advertising” published by entrepreneur magazine, Marshall and Meloche (2012) state that
when Zuckerberge and his friends launched the website in 2004, then known as “The
Facebook”, they had no idea that the platform could eight years later topple dictators or
even create a new channel of advertising. Their sole purpose it is argued, was simply to
build a digital medium for their fellow students at the university to see and connect to each
pg. 34
other by means of real names, pictures and email addresses as the requirement for
registration.
Interestingly, within the next 30 days, more than half of undergrads at Harvard had
subscribed to Facebook. Its growth could no longer be restricted as students from Boston
colleges, the Ivy League and Stanford University and later other countries joined Facebook.
In September 2006, Facebook opened its doors to anyone who was above 13 years and
had a valid email address (Marshall and Meloche, 2012). According to Zuckerberg’s own
words: “when you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends
up in a really good place. So what we view our role as, is giving people that power”. So
the question is; has this power been tapped by advertiser?
Today Facebook is the most successful social networking site and generates its revenue
from companies that want to reach its members through marketing and advertising
activities on its web pages. Marketing via Facebook is an efficient functioning concept that
offers optional platform for companies of all sizes to achieve marketing and branding goals
at a relatively low cost (Lilley et al, 2013).
According to Facebook (2013) annual report, this SNS focuses on providing value for
all kinds of marketers including brand marketers, direct marketers, small and medium-sized
businesses and developers. Facebook as a web platform aims to help marketers achieve
their business objectives such as increasing online sales, in-store sales or awareness of their
brands, products or services. Facebook generates substantial majority of its revenue from
selling advertising placements to marketers.
pg. 35
“Our ads offer marketers the opportunity to communicate their messages to
consumers and to direct them to specific destinations such as a web page or a
Facebook Page. Marketers purchase ads that can appear in multiple locations
including in the right-hand side of most page types on personal computers and in the
News Feed on personal walls.”(Facebook, 2013).
By the year 2012, Facebook retained the number one position as the most popular
SNS in the world. In its recent filing with the US financial authorities, (ahead of a planned
initial public offering of shares in the company) Facebook revealed that it had 845 million
monthly active users. Additionally, it reported that over half of these users (425 million)
logged into the SNS every day (Facebook, 2012). This is a big audience for marketers to
target with advertisements.
“With Facebook Adverts, you choose the type of people you want to reach and we
deliver your adverts to them. This makes your adverts more relevant for the people
who see them, and brings you real results.” (Facebook, 2015)
In Kenya Facebook gained traction in 2006 and has the youth as the majority actively
using it on a daily basis. A social media metrics tracker called SocialBaker states that by
2013 Kenya had 2,018,560 Facebook users, a representation of 5.04 per cent of the total
population, a 19.24 per cent of the online population. The largest age group on Facebook
in Kenya is the 18-24 year.
pg. 36
2.4.1 Advertising on Facebook
When an individual signs up to be a member of Facebook (it is free to date) he/she
creates an account and is ready to maintain a personal profile with one of the leading
social networking site. While still on the process of registration and even after, one is
allowed to upload photos and list a number of his/her interests. After a user is done with
configuring his/her account by also providing other information (e.g. further demographic
data, geographic information etc.) as required by Facebook at this point a user can proceed
and connect with other already subscribed members by adding friends through a process
known as sending a friend request. In return these friends must accept the request before
any further exchanges can occur.
Furthermore, one reason why it is possible for one to connect to many people is the
fact that based on the demographic data that users provide when signing up for Facebook,
it is possible to search friend based on their names, schools they attended, companies they
work for or basically through an email address that a friend maintain. Although it is possible
for a Facebook member to search for anybody’s profile on Facebook, as long as they are
members, only friends gotten through the formal request process are able to see full
information on each other’s side. This also depends on a user’s individualistic account
settings. This means that though Facebook has been accused of not being very private with
users’ content, at least to some extent individuals can control who views some of their
information.
pg. 37
Additionally, in Facebook every person’s account (by design) has a designated space
called the Wall which is one of the most visited pages in Facebook. The Wall is dedicated
to user profiles and it is at this page where users are able to interact with friends through
posting short messages, sharing videos and even long texts (of not more than 1000 words)
in form of articles uploading. But although users can communicate to their friends through
exchange of such content which can also be used by subscribers to promote their business
interests, see Figure 2.9(a), it is on the right-side of the Facebook pages as shown in Figure
2.9(b), where sponsored ads are displayed in a vertical column format.
pg. 38
Figure 2.9(a) Extracted from
https://www.facebook.com/anne.mbature (2015)
pg. 39
Facebook well known for its innovativeness added one of the most useful features in
2012 which has set it apart from other social networking sites. This feature is an information
aggregation system known as Newsfeed, see Figure 2.9(b) below.
Figure 2.9(b): Adopted from Marin Software Inc. (2014)
Based on the filtering configuration defined by an individual user, each person’s newsfeed
shows a personalized accumulated display of recently updated information from the
friends one is connected to, together with messages directly written on his/her wall by
friends together with targeted advertisement messages. In additional, by default all new
pg. 40
messages appear at the top of newsfeed page thus allowing a user to monitor changes at
a glance instead of having to browse to each friend’s wall to catch up with them.
Elsewhere in Facebook, although by layout design of the website, the area designated
for advertisers to display paid adverts (known as sponsored ads) is on the right-side of the
wall/page as explained early, Facebook offers another way (which has made marketing on
this platform more open) mainly for organizations who could want to create messages that
will appear in someone’s newsfeed. That option is by creating what is called a Facebook
“Page”. Though Facebook page is much like a user profile, the difference is that it comes
with some few extra benefits that help in self-promotion. First, Facebook pages are publicly
accessible to anyone with a Facebook account without any form of pre-authorization.
Second, Facebook page is configured in a way that people can become “Fans” of a page.
It is out of this functionality that organizations can maintain a page in Facebook where
they are able to interact with their fans whether they are promoting brands, events, services
or other things. Figure 2.9(c) shows an example of Facebook Page advertisement post.
pg. 41
Figure 2.9(c). Extracted from www.facebook.com (2015)
One big benefit of this function to organizations is its ability to get feedback from their
fans through a mechanism called liking/disliking or better through posting comments. By
default, the number of comments that fans can post on a page is equal to the number of
pg. 42
fans a page has i.e. if a page has 200 fans and one fan posts a comment, the message is
going to reach 200 fans.
2.5 Attitudes towards Advertising
Before reviewing some studies that discuss issues pertaining attitudes towards
advertising, it is important to examine theories that have been adopted in research on this
area. Although a number of such theories exist with the aim of predicting consum er
purchase decision only one theory namely the Hierarchy of Effects will be reviewed in
relation to its application in social media as an advertising medium.
Hierarchy of Effects theory developed by Lavidge and Sterner (1961) is the commonly
referenced theory in advertising research. Their theoretical essay explores the influence on
consumer decision-making and basically explains the consumer thought-process. Acting as
a consumer model of advertising, the theory conceptualizes advertising as a long-term
process countering the common opinion that all advertising should incite immediate action
from the consumer to be successful. The theory is grounded around six hierarchical steps
namely Awareness, Knowledge, Liking, Preference, Conviction and Purchase. It states that
individual consumers go through these steps at own speeds depending on the level of
individual motivation and product involvement among other factors (Lavidge and Sterner,
1961).
Although Mabry (2010) argues that the hierarchy of effects theory evolved from the
AIDA model (another consumer decision-making model) with the steps of Action, Interest,
Desire and Action, Lavidge and Sterner (1961) believed that understanding consumers
pg. 43
decision-making process allowed advertisers to construct more persuasive messages. Mabry
(2010) further observes that the hierarchy of effects theory was influenced by the popular
Cognitive, Affective and Conative Psychology model which describe the behavioral
dimension of decision-making suggesting that individuals first think, then develop feeling
which finally leads to act when influenced by stimuli.
Notwithstanding the fact that various other models have been developed since the
hierarchical model, particularly with interest in cognitive processes of consumer in relation
to psychological and behavioral dimension, Lavidge and Steiner’s hierarchy of effects has
proved to be the most influential (Mabry, 2010). In fact, several studies have recently used
the theory as a background in their advertising research work. For example a study aimed
at finding out how advertising affects consumers by examining hierarchies associated with
the consumer decision-making process, included the hierarchy of effects model together
with all other models following the Cognition, Affect, and Behavior model together with
the AIDA model (Vakratsas and Ambler, 1999). In their study, Vakratsas and Ambler (1999)
found out five main areas of research that stemmed from the original models. These areas
include the brand attitude formation, advert likeability and attitudes towards the
advertisement, the effects of message repetition on awareness, recall, and attitude
formation among others.
In summary, according to Mabry (2010), although there are several conclusions made
based on the analysis of these hierarchies, first, emotions as well as past beliefs affects a
consumer attitude towards a brand. Second, ad likeability and brand preference are highly
correlated. And finally, advertisers can maintain recall and attitudes using a series of slightly
pg. 44
different advertisements within a product campaign. Based on the findings of a recent study
titled “Engaging Audiences: An Analysis of Social Media Usage in Advertising”, Mabry
(2010) states that according to the advertisers survey, the entry of social media as a
medium of advertising have changed the process consumers go through when making
decision on whether to purchase goods or not.
This means that the hierarchy of effects as a consumer model still applies to consumers
who engage with social media. However, many of the respondents (i.e. sampled
advertisers in Mabry study) indicated that achieving consumer response at each level has
become more challenging since the creation of social media a fact attributed to the
differences in which consumers interact in these platforms.
Based on the established theories on consumer purchase decision theory, consumer’s
attitude towards advertising remains one of the focus areas of research (Homer, 2006;
Dutta-Bergman, 2006; Shavitt et al., 2008; Metta, 2000; Speck & Elliot, 1997). The findings
of these studies reveal that there are various factors that influence customer’s attitudes
towards advertising. Dutta-Bergman (2006) states that demographic and lifestyle
determines attitudes that customers exhibit towards advertising but suggests that younger
customers rely less on advertising for decision making compared to their older
counterparts. Shavitt et al. (2008) argues that consumers are aware of the fact that the cost
of purchased products reflect the advertising expenses and thus believe that products that
are not advertised give a higher value to customers.
pg. 45
Mehta (2006) also found out that consumers perceive advertising to be more
manipulative than informative and therefore believe that products do not perform as well
as portrayed in advertising. However according to Shavitt et al. (2008) study on
psychographic variables related to attitudes towards advertising, younger people were
more likely to show positive attitudes towards advertising and were less likely to feel
offended or insulted by advertising which Melta (2000) argues translates to better message
recall.
According to Schultz (2008) as illustrated by Figure 2.9(d) below (the push-pull model
of marketing communication) consumers react to oversaturated advertising message
clutters in both traditional and nontraditional media such as internet. He posits that
customers control the content flow by electing shields to block out the increasing cluster
and avoid the “push” of the advertisement messages from the marketers. He argues that
doing so leaves the customers free to “pull” the information they desire from the internet
or other media at a convenient time. This mechanism is called advertising avoidance which
Speck and Elliot (1997) defines as “all actions by media users that differentially reduce their
exposure to ad content.”
pg. 46
Employees/Recommendations/Distributions/Influencers
Web Search
Competitors
Competitors
Agency
Research
MediaProducts/Services
Marketer
Messages and Incentives
Consumers/
Prospect
Competitors
Competitors
Word-of-Mouth
New Media
Forms
Figure 2.9(d): Adopted from Schultz (2008)
2.5.1 Advertising Avoidance
In their study “Avoidance of advertising in social networking sites (the case of teenage
perspective)” Louise, Kerr and Drennan (2000) observe that based on consumer attitudes
towards advertising, advertising avoidance has become a likely consequence. Although the
believability or trustworthiness of the medium of advertising influences how customers will
view the credibility of its information, Moore and Rodgers (2005) and also Cho and Cheon
(2004) confirm that several studies have recognized that the explosion of ads has caused
consumers to avoid ads in traditional media (Zanot, 1984) while cluster-bomb approach
of ads on the internet has led to decline towards consumer responsiveness to internet ads.
pg. 47
Gritten (2007) and Schults (2006a) state that consumers today are exposed to
thousands of commercial messages everyday especially through guerrilla media campaigns,
blogs, podcasts, online social networking sites besides traditional media such as television
and newspapers. This has led to what Gritten (2007) terms as consumers editing of
information through empowerment of technology to avoid both content and advertising
messages that don’t interest them; a phenomena that Cheon and Grant (2005) refers to as
advertising avoidance and points out the fact that it has not received much study on the
online environment so far.
Advertising avoidance is said to occur by cognitive, behavioral and mechanical means
(Speck & Elliot, 1997; Neal et al., 2004; Homer, 2006) and some examples as stated by
Louise et al. (2010) includes choosing to ignore a newspaper or magazine advertisement
(cognitive method), leaving the room during an advertising break (behavioral method)
and deleting pop-ups on the internet (mechanical means).
2.5.2 Ad Avoidance on the Internet
Cho and cheon (2004) state that much research on ad avoidance has been mostly
restricted to traditional media such as television, radio, newspaper, magazines hence there
is limited academic research on internet ad avoidance. However according to Miller (1996)
internet is viewed as a convergent medium for all other media i.e. a hybrid of television,
radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, direct mail and so forth. This is supported by
Cho and Cheon (2004) who observes that through the internet, people can watch
pg. 48
broadcast programs, listen to radio, read newspapers, read direct e-mail ads, a fact that
makes it interesting to study ad avoidance on the internet today.
To understand this phenomenon, it is necessary to look at the various forms of
advertising that exist on the internet. Zeff and Alonso (1999) outlines some of advertising
forms on the internet to includes buttons, banner ads, pop-ups ads, paid text links,
sponsorships, target sites, superstitials ads, E-mail ads among others. But though banners
have become the most prevalent format of advertising on the internet (Briggs and Holli,
1997) since the appearance of the first commercial banner ad on Hotwired.com in 1994,
Nielson (2000) states that the click-through rates (CTRs) of banner ads declined from 2%
in 1995 to 0.5% in 1998.
pg. 49
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3
Overview
This chapter discusses the method that was used to collect primary data and how the
data was analyzed to give the expected findings of the study. The questionnaire, which is
the main instrument used to collected the data is justified as to why it is the preferred tool
of caring out a survey of attitudes and perceptions. The research design is explained, the
population, the sampling design, research procedure, data analysis and presentation tools
and techniques are outlined appropriately.
3.1
Research Design
Descriptive Survey which adopts a case study mode, is the preferred design for this
research as the study is concerned with finding out “what” of a phenomena. According to
Donald and Pamela (1998), a study concerned with finding out who, what, which and
how of a phenomenon is referred to as descriptive design. Maina (2012) confirms that this
type of research attempts to describe attitudes towards an issue.
3.2 Population and Sampling Frame
The population of this study is the youth who use internet in Nairobi. The sample is
drawn from those who use social media from Nairobi (being the capital city of Kenya, it
provides a diversity of population that cuts across different ethical considerations and at
the same time have savvy internet users) and maintain personal accounts with Facebook.
pg. 50
This is done with the intention of generalizing the findings at least within the boundaries
of Nairobi County.
The demographic group is segregated into three youth groups: Students of higher
learning institutions, employed and self-employed youth aged between 19 – 34 years. This
age bracket was arrived at after considering the definition of the youth according to the
constitution of kenya which states that all individuals who have attained the age of 18
years but have not attained the age of 35 are youth and the UN which on the other hand
defines youth as persons between the age of 15 to 24 (Njonjo, 2010). According to Davis
(1999) college students who comprise the largest internet user segments, have acted as
opinion leaders about internet content and thus act as a lucrative consumer group for
online marketers.
3.3 Sampling Design
A Sample of 180 respondents through purposive sampling technique will be used. 60
students will be picked from 5 institutions of higher learning within the CBD, 60 among
the employed youth and 60 among the youth doing businesses within the city of Nairobi
which is estimated to have a population of 3.1 million according to the 2009 National
Census. This is a fair representation of youth that live in the city of Nairobi.
3.4 Data C ollection Instrument
Most of the academic researches done to study the phenomena of perceptions and
attitudes towards online advertising have been quantitative and thus made use of
questionnaire as a tool for collecting primary data. According to Kodjamanis and
pg. 51
Angelopoulos (2012) many questionnaires aimed at collecting data towards online
advertising studies are designed based on the work of Schlosser et al. (1999), which has
been one of the most prominent studies on online advertising.
In this survey primary data was therefore collected through open and close-ended
structured questionnaire (with a few open-ended questions) using the Likert scale rating
method. The questionnaire being the main tool for collecting primary data was designed
through a pilot test of 10 respondents who were picked through convenience sampling
method to ensure that the tool gave the required response and that the respondents
understood the questions.
The finding of the test questionnaire were very helpful. The test exercise pointed out
to a number of concerns as follows: first, since the questionnaire was initially a seven page
booklet, the researcher realized that the respondents were being turned-off from
participating because they thought it was a demanding exercise, also a number of those
who took the questionnaire in this form did not respond to all the questions. This forced
the researcher to redesign the layout of the questionnaire whereby the content was
compressed to fit into a two page A4 standard paper through reducing the font size and
line spacing but only to a level that maintained legibility (see appendix I).
Secondly, since the questionnaire had many questions based on the objectives of the
study, the researcher found it necessary to change the third specific objective from one that
had many questions to one which required the comparison of the responses of the general
objective of the survey. Technically, this was possible due to the fact that the survey aimed
pg. 52
to investigate a similar phenomenon across three demographic groups. Finally the newly
structured two page questionnaire was tested again on a sample of ten respondents and
with other minor grammatical mistakes having been corrected, the response was good and
thus deemed effective to present to the final respondents.
The official questionnaire was now physically presented to the target respondents.
Some respondents (who were first asked if they have subscribed to Facebook and if not
were not qualified for this survey) offered to fill the questionnaire on the spot while others
were willing to participate if only the questionnaire was given to them only to be collected
on a later date. The researcher was flexible to work with the two groups on either way.
The questionnaire was made up of 3 main parts. Section A which collected
demographic data, Section B collect data on awareness and knowledge of online
advertising and the extent of the use of Facebook among the youth. Section C aimed to
collect data on key elements of attitudes based on the established online advertising
perception model i.e. Informative-ness, entertainment, credibility, social & economy role
and value based on previous researches.
3.5 Data Analysis Method
Quantitative data analysis methods were employed to tabulate data from the
structured questions with the aim of graphically presenting the outcomes of the study. SPSS
and Ms. Excel were deployed as statistical computer applications of choice for analysis of
data. Ms. Excel was used carry out descriptive analysis in form of percentages. SPSS was
used to perform One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), an inferential analysis aimed to
pg. 53
compare the means among the three demographic groups of the youth. This analysis will
lead to acceptance or fail to accept the hypothesis of the survey.
3.6 Data Presentation
Finally, the analyzed data was presented through graphical illustrations. These are in
form of tables, graphs and pie charts depending on how convenient and easy to interpret
each of them was and also understood by the researcher. Figure 3.1 below shows a
schematic summarizing the research design process.
Research
Design
•Evaluation of
research
objectives
•Operationaliz
ation of
Variables
•Determination
of procedures
•Determination
of sample
Collection of
Data
Analysis of
Data
•Questionnare
generation
•Questionare
testing
•Approval for
study
•Recrult of
participants
•Conduct
Study
•Coding/
Entering Data
•Data
preparation
•Analysis Data
•Interpreting
results
Findings &
Discussion
•Recommend
ations &
Conclusions
Figure 3.1
pg. 54
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
4
Overview
Presented in this chapter are the findings of the data analysis of the study together with
their interpretations. The chapter has two parts. The first part gives the descriptive analysis
of the data. Means (averages) and percentages of the relevant variables used to determine
the extent and use of Facebook among the youth in Nairobi.
The second part gives the results of attitudes and perception of the youth towards
Facebook advertising and social media advertising in general. All themes discussing the
same objectives across the three demographic groups were presented and analyzed
together. The chapter begins with the demographic information of the respondents
followed by presentations, interpretation and discussions of research findings based on the
objectives.
4.1
PART ONE: Results of Descriptive Analysis of the Respondents
4.1.1 Questionnaire completion rate
Completion rate is the proportion of the population that participated as intended in
all the research procedures. Out of target of 180 respondents i.e. 60 Students, 60 Employed
and 60 Self-Employed in the city of Nairobi that constituted the entire population, 150
returned the questionnaires; 50 students, 50 employed and 50 self-employed which was
83% return rate. This return rate was deemed adequate and effective for the study
especially since the return rate among the three groups was equally distributed.
pg. 55
4.1.2 General Description Analysis of Respondents Characteristics
Demographic information of the Students, Employed and Self-Employed respondents
in Nairobi city was among other factors based on their age, occupation and type of
institution attended.
Figure 4.1: Percentage of respondents by their age
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
From the respondents who filled the questionnaire, it was noted that in the group of
students, 58% were aged between 19 - 22 year, 38% aged between 23 – 26 years and 2%
aged between 31 – 34 years. Among the Employed youth 38% were those aged between
27 – 30 years, 34% aged between 23 – 26 years and 2% between 19 – 22 years. SelfEmployed respondent aged 23 – 26 years were 34%, between 27 – 30 years were 28%,
19 – 22 years 10% and 31 - 34 years 28%. Thus the respondents who took part in the
study were mature enough to make sound judgments.
pg. 56
Figure 4.2: Percentage of respondents by gender
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted that respondent findings as indicated in Figure 4.2 show that most of
respondents in all the three demographic groups were male: Students (56%), Employed
(56%) and Self-Employed (62%). Females were (44%) for Students, (44%) for Employed
and (38%) for Self Employed.
pg. 57
Figure 4.3: Percentage of students respondents by type of institution attended
STUDENTS
42%
58%
0%
College
Polytechnic
University
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from the respondent’s findings as indicated in Figure 4.3 show that a majority
of students are from universities at 58%, 42% from colleges. The Figure above show a 0%
for polytechnics, an occurrence that can be explained based on the fact that my the time
the researcher had gone to collect data based on the accepted research proposal, the
government of kenya had elevated polytechnics in the country to technical universities.
pg. 58
Figure 4.4: Percentage of respondents by the frequency of i nternet use
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was indicated from the respondent’s findings that most of them use internet daily. The
Employed were found to use the internet more per day at 94% daily and 6% weekly.
Student followed at 90% daily, 8% weekly and 2% monthly. The use of internet daily
could be attributed to the fact that many people are now days able to access internet
through their mobile phones
pg. 59
Figure 4.5: Percentage of respondents by the location of internet access
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was indicated from the findings that most of the respondents access internet mostly at
their places of work and these were found to be the Employed at 82%. Home location
came second at 54% by the students. The findings also indicate that the Self-Employed
access the Internet from their places of work at 38%, home 26% and 22% from cyber
cafes. This indicate that it is the Self-Employed youth who access the internet most from
different locations.
pg. 60
Figure 4.6: Percentage of respondents by the devices they use
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was indicated from the respondent’s findings that most of the devices used to access
internet are Desktop computers by the Employed respondents at 52%, followed by
Smartphones used by Students at 38% and Self-Employed respondents used laptops at
28%. The least used device was tablets perhaps due to the fact that it is the latest device
in the market and could be scares and expensive.
pg. 61
4.2 PART TWO: The Respondents Extent and use of Facebook as a Social Media
This section of the report presents the extent and use of Facebook among the youth in
general. It indicates the hours spent on the social site, the nature of interaction, how they
respond to advertisement messages and their general attitudes and perceptions towards
advertising on Facebook
Table 4.1: Percentage of respondents who have accounts with social networking sites
Social Networking Site Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Facebook
100%
100%
100%
WhatsApp
86%
66%
60%
Twitter
58%
64%
34%
YouTube
54%
44%
38%
LinkedIn
34%
38%
22%
Flicker
8%
2%
6%
Myspace
8%
0%
2%
Tagged
6%
6%
0%
Hi5
2%
2%
2%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.1 above show that Facebook is the only social networking site that everyone
(100%) in the three demographic groups have accounts, followed by WhatsApp with
Students at 86%, Employed at 66% and Self-Employed at 60%. This was also closely
pg. 62
followed by Twitter with Students 58%, Employed 64% and self Employed 34%. Hi5 was
least with very few members as little as 2% in all the three demographics groups.
Table 4.2: Frequency at which r espondents visit Facebook website when connected to
internet
Frequency
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Once a day
28%
14%
20%
Several Times a day
54%
74%
72%
Once a week
6%
4%
4%
Several times a month
4%
2%
2%
Once a month
8%
2%
2%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.2 above that most respondents visits Facebook site several times
a day; 54% for Students, 74% for Employed and 72% for Self-Employed. This is a clear
indication that most of respondents are so addicted to Facebook site.
pg. 63
Table 4.3: Percentage of respondent’s average number of friends on Facebook p rofile
Range
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Less than 10
0%
4%
4%
51 to 100
4%
14%
16%
101 to 150
6%
2%
4%
151 to 200
6%
8%
4%
201 to 250
4%
4%
2%
251 to 300
6%
2%
6%
300 to 350
8%
18%
12%
351 to 400
12%
4%
2%
More than 400
60%
48%
48%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.3 above that most of the respondents had an average number
of friends above 400. 60% for Students, 48% for Employed and 48 for Self-Employed
respondents. This shows that Facebook allows its subscribers to connected to many people.
pg. 64
Table 4.4: Percentage of what respondent’s spend most time doing on Facebook
Activity
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Conducting Business
16%
10%
26%
Keeping in touch with friends
76%
74%
70%
Sharing Videos, Articles,
Pictures
40%
24%
28%
Passing time
26%
12%
10%
Getting Information on new
products and brands
48%
30%
36%
Keeping up to date with social
events
52%
54%
54%
Making new friends
38%
20%
22%
Others
0%
0%
0%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.4 above that most of the respondents spend their time on
Facebook getting in touch with friends at 76% for Students, 74% for Employed and 70%
for Self-Employed. This is followed by keeping up to date with social events at 52% for
Students, 54% for Employed and 54% for Self-Employed respondents. Getting
Information on new products and brands at 48% for Students, 30% for Employed and
36% for Self-Employed, Sharing 40% for students, 24% Employed and 28% for SelfEmployed.
pg. 65
Table 4.5: Percentage of number of company pages respondents are m embers
Number
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
None
12%
8%
26%
Less than 10
42%
54%
38%
11 to 20
36%
32%
24%
21 to 30
2%
2%
8%
More than 30
8%
4%
6%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.5 above that most of the respondents are members of less than
10 companies: Students 42%, Employed 54% and Self Employed 38% followed by 11 to
20 companies: Student 36%,Employed 32% and Self-Employed 24%. The least was 21 to
30 companies: Student 2%, Employed 2% and Self-Employed 8%. However 12% of
Students, 8% of Employed and 26% of Self-Employed had none.
Table 4.6: Percentage of number of respondents who notices advertisement messages
Response
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Yes
98%
94%
96%
No
2%
6%
4%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.6 above that most respondents notice advertisement messages
while using Facebook: Student 98%, Employed 94% and Self Employed 96%.
pg. 66
Table 4.7: Percentage of how respondents often come across advertisement messages
Frequency
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Very often
28%
42%
48%
Often
36%
38%
26%
Sometimes
22%
12%
18%
Rarely
10%
4%
8%
Very rarely
4%
2%
0%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.7 above that most respondents come across advertisement
messages very often: Students 28%, Employed 42% and Self-Employed, this was closely
followed by those who said they come across advertisement messages often: Students
36%, Employed 38% Self-Employed 26%.
Table 4.8: Percentage of respondents who pay attention advertisement messages
Response
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Yes
64%
74%
64%
No
36%
26%
36%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.8 above that most of the respondents pay attention to the
advertisement messages: Students 64%, Employed 74% and Self-Employed 64%.
pg. 67
Table 4.9: Percentage of what prompt respondent to pay attention to advertisement
messages on Facebook.
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
40%
52%
58%
I am captivated by the advertising
18%
design
Out of curiosity
18%
I recognize the brand/company/product 28%
18%
20%
18%
10%
38%
34%
To find out if the adverts are for free
things
Others
4%
4%
12%
0%
0%
0%
Relevance to something of my interest
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.9 above that what prompts respondents most to pay attention
to advertisement messages is relevance to something of their interest: Students 40%,
Employed 52% and Self-Employed 58%, followed by if they recognize the
brand/company/product: Students 28%, Employed 38% and Self-Employed 34%.
pg. 68
Table 4.10: Percentage of what does not prompt respondent to pay attention to
advertisement on Facebook
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
It’s completely irrelevant to
me
20%
14%
26%
Message in the advert not
always clear
4%
6%
2%
I am so used to adverts
8%
10%
8%
The quality of advert design is
poor
8%
0%
2%
Others
0%
0%
0%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.10 above that what makes most respondents not to pay
attention to advertisements on Facebook is because it’s completely irrelevant to them
Students 20%, Employed 14% and Self-Employed 26%. They also stated that they are
used to adverts Students 8%, Employed 10% and Self-Employed 8%.
pg. 69
Table 4.11: Percentage of how often respondent purchase goods based on advertisement
encountered on Facebook
Frequency
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Never
44%
44%
48%
Rarely
36%
38%
28%
Sometimes
18%
14%
16%
Often
2%
4%
4%
Always
0%
0%
0%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.11 above that most respondents have never purchased anything
on Facebook or as a result of advertisement encountered of Facebook. Students 44%,
Employed 44% and Self-Employed 48%, followed by rarely at Students 36%, Employed
38% and Self-Employed 28%. Sometimes at Students 18%, Employed 14% and SelfEmployed 16%.
Table 4.12: Percentage of respondents who have ever advertised anything of Facebook
Response
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Yes
32%
38%
38%
No
68%
62%
62%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
pg. 70
It was noted from Table 4.12 above that most respondents have never advertised on
Facebook Students 68%, Employed 62% and Self-Employed 62%.
Table 4.13: Percentage of respondents a pproach used to advertise on Facebook
Approach
Student
Employed
Self-Employed
Created a post on my wall
page
32%
38%
36%
Paid for advertising space as
per Facebook commercial
advertising guide
2%
0%
2%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
It was noted from Table 4.13 above that those who have ever advertised on Facebook
created an advertisement message and posted it on their wall pages. Students 32%,
Employed 38% and Self-Employed 36%.
pg. 71
Table 4.14: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising (Students)
Aspect
Agree
Disagree
Indifferent
Advertising on Facebook is
informative
76%
14%
10%
Ads placed on Facebook are
creatively designed
40%
32%
28%
Facebook advertising is
annoying
22%
60%
18%
Advertising on Facebook is
entertaining
60%
24%
16%
Facebook ads are time wasting 24%
diversion
56%
20%
Facebook advertising violates
privacy
30%
50%
20%
Adverting authorities should
put restriction on what is
advertised on Facebook
70%
24%
6%
Facebook offers good ad
avoidance mechanisms
40%
36%
24%
I can recommend my friends
to certain advertising on
Facebook pages
74%
16%
12%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.14 shows Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising for the
Students demographic group.
pg. 72
Table 4.15: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising (Employed)
Aspect
Agree
Disagree
Indifferent
Advertising on Facebook is
informative
80%
10%
30%
Ads placed on Facebook are
creatively designed
62%
20%
18%
Facebook advertising is
annoying
14%
48%
28%
Advertising on Facebook is
entertaining
42%
30%
28%
Facebook ads are time wasting 8%
diversion
70%
22%
Facebook advertising violates
privacy
18%
64%
18%
Adverting authorities should
put restriction on what is
advertised on Facebook
74%
18%
8%
Facebook offers good ad
avoidance mechanisms
40%
30%
30%
I can recommend my friends
to certain advertising on
Facebook pages
68%
20%
12%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.15 shows Percentage of respondents Beliefs towards Facebook advertising for the
Employed demographic group.
pg. 73
Table 4.16: Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook adverting (SelfEmployed)
Aspect
Agree
Disagree
Indifferent
Advertising on Facebook is
informative
80%
12%
8%
Ads placed on Facebook are
creatively designed
70%
12%
18%
Facebook advertising is
annoying
18%
70%
12%
Advertising on Facebook is
entertaining
56%
32%
12%
Facebook ads are time wasting 14%
diversion
66%
20%
Facebook advertising violates
privacy
22%
56%
22%
Adverting authorities should
put restriction on what is
advertised on Facebook
74%
20%
6%
Facebook offers good ad
avoidance mechanisms
54%
26%
20%
I can recommend my friends
to certain advertising on
Facebook pages
80%
14%
6%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.16 shows Percentage of respondent’s beliefs towards Facebook advertising for the
Self-employed demographic group.
pg. 74
Table 4.17: Descriptive of beliefs towards Facebook adverting in all demographic groups
N
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
95% Confidence
Interval for Mean
Lower
Bound
Upper
Bound
Mini
mum
Maxi
mum
Students
9
48.44
21.766
7.255
31.71
65.18
22
76
Employed
9
45.11
27.333
9.111
24.10
66.12
8
80
Non
Employed
9
52.00
27.148
9.049
31.13
72.87
14
80
Total
27
48.52
24.711
4.756
38.74
58.29
8
80
Source: Researcher Survey 2014 SPSS Output
Table 4.18: ANOVA results on beliefs towards Facebook advertising in all demographic
groups
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
Between
Groups
213.630
2
106.815
Within
Groups
15663.111
24
652.630
15876.741
26
Total
F
.164
Sig.
.850
Source: Researcher Survey 2014 SPSS Output
The realized ANOVA value was F= 0.164, p=0.850 thus the beliefs towards Facebook
advertising were not significantly different among the three demographic groups in
Nairobi. The study found Students (M=48.44), Employed (45.11), Self-Employed
pg. 75
(M=52.00) since the p value was less than 0.05. Further the study established that
Employed and Self-Employed respondents had a bigger standard deviation of above 27
which implies that there was a bigger difference on how respondents gave their responses.
Table 4.19: Percentage of respondent’s Perceptions towards social media advertising in
general (Students)
Aspect
Strongly
Agree
Indifferent Disagree Strongly
agree
disagree
Timely
38%
40%
4%
12%
6%
Effective
24%
48%
14%
8%
6%
Useful
38%
40%
16%
6%
0%
Informative
40%
42%
8%
8%
2%
Friendly
30%
46%
14%
10%
0%
Accurate
10%
26%
28%
34%
2%
Enjoyable
26%
38%
22%
12%
2%
Interesting
24%
48%
18%
8%
2%
Credible
18%
36%
18%
18%
10%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.19 shows Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards Social Media
Advertisement in general for the Students demographic group.
pg. 76
Table 4.20: Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards social media advertising in
general (Employed)
Aspect
Strongly
Agree
Indifferent Disagree Strongly
agree
disagree
Timely
48%
40%
10%
2%
0%
Effective
32%
50%
14%
4%
0%
Useful
30%
46%
22%
2%
0%
Informative
40%
40%
12%
8%
0%
Friendly
26%
42%
28%
4%
0%
Accurate
18%
24%
16%
22%
0%
Enjoyable
22%
36%
28%
14%
0%
Interesting
28%
48%
16%
6%
2%
Credible
10%
32%
40%
16%
2%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.20 shows Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards Social Media advertising
for the Employed demographic group.
pg. 77
Table 4.21: Percentage of respondent’s perceptions towards social media advertising (SelfEmployed)
Aspect
Strongly
Agree
Indifferent Disagree Strongly
agree
disagree
Timely
52%
32%
6%
2%
8%
Effective
46%
34%
10%
10%
0%
Useful
42%
40%
8%
10%
0%
Informative
50%
40%
8%
0%
2%
Friendly
52%
44%
16%
8%
0%
Accurate
28%
30%
24%
12%
6%
Enjoyable
32%
34%
36%
8%
2%
Interesting
48%
32%
12%
4%
4%
Credible
22%
34%
20%
22%
2%
Source: Researcher Survey 2014
Table 4.21 shows Percentage of respondents Aspects towards Social Media Advertisement
for the Self-employed demographic group.
pg. 78
Table 4.22: Descriptive on perceptions towards social media advertising on all
demographic groups
N
Mean
Std.
Deviation
Std.
Error
95% Confidence
Interval for Mean
Lower
Bound
Mini
mum
Maxi
mum
Upper
Bound
Students
9
68.00
14.697
4.899
56.70
79.30
36
82
Employed
9
68.00
17.029
5.676
54.91
81.09
42
88
Non
Employed
9
76.89
13.896
4.632
66.21
87.57
56
96
27
70.96
15.276
2.940
64.92
77.01
36
96
Total
Source: Researcher Survey 2014 SPSS Output
Table 4.23: ANOVA results on perceptions towards social media advertising in general
on all demographic groups
Sum of
Squares
df
Mean
Square
Between
Groups
474.074
2
237.037
Within
Groups
5592.889
24
233.037
Total
6066.963
26
F
1.017
Sig.
.377
Source: Researcher Survey 2014 SPSS Output
The realized ANOVA value was F= 1.017, p=0.377 thus the perceptions towards social
media advertising were not significantly different among the three demographic groups in
pg. 79
Nairobi. The study found Students (M=68.88), Employed (68.00), Self-Employed
(M=76.89) since the p value was less than 0.05. Further the study established that
respondents had a bigger standard deviation of 17.029 which implies that there was a
bigger difference on how respondents gave their responses.
4.3 Discussion and Interpretation of the Findings
The study found that Facebook is the only social networking site that everyone (100%)
in the three demographic groups have accounts, followed by WhatsApp: Students 86%,
Employed 66% and Self-Employed 60%. It was also noted that most respondents visit
Facebook site when connected to the internet several times a day; 54% for Students, 74%
for Employed and 72% for Self-Employed. The average number of friends each respondent
had were above 400. 60% for Students, 48% for Employed and 48 for Self-Employed.
It was also noted that most of the respondents spend time on Facebook to get in touch
with friends; 76% for Students, 74% for Employed and 70% for Self-Employed, this was
followed by Keeping up to date with social events at 52% for Students, 54% for Employed
and 54% for Self-Employed respondents. Most of the respondents are members of less
than 10 companies: students 42%, Employed 54% and Self Employed 38%, It was also
noted that most respondent’s notice advertisement messages while using Facebook:
Student 98%, Employed 94% and Self Employed 96%. Most of these respondents come
across advertisement messages very often: Students 28%, Employed 42% and SelfEmployed, this was closely followed by those who said they come across advertisement
messages often: Students 36%, Employed 38% self-employed 26%. Most of the
respondents pay attention to the advertisement messages: Students 64%, Employed 74%
pg. 80
and self-employed 64%. What prompts respondents most to pay attention to
advertisement messages is relevance to something of their interest: Students 40%,
Employed 52% and Self-Employed 58%, followed by if they recognize the
brand/company/product: students 28%, Employed 38% and self-employed 34%. While
what makes most respondents not to pay attention to advertisements on Facebook is
because it’s completely irrelevant to them: Students: 20%, Employed 14% and SelfEmployed 26%, they also stated that they are used to adverts Students: 8%, Employed
10% and Self-Employed 8%. It was also noted that most respondents have never
purchased anything on Facebook or as a result of advertisement encountered of Facebook
Students: 44%, Employed 44% and Self-Employed 48%, followed by rarely Students:
36%, Employed 38% and Self-Employed 28%. For Sometimes: Students 18%, Employed
14% and Self-Employed 16%. Most respondents have never advertised on Facebook
Students: 68%, Employed 62% and Self-Employed 62%. Those who have ever advertised
on Facebook created a post on their wall page Students: 32%, Employed 38% and SelfEmployed 36%.
How ANOVA was calculated
The calculation for ANOVA was computed as the differences between certification
indexes levels of all items being investigated for all the three groups (Certification index
was computed as the percentage of those who agreed on a particular item).
For the Beliefs towards Facebook Advertising: The realized ANOVA value was F= 0.164,
p=0.850 thus the beliefs towards Facebook advertising were not significantly different
among the three demographic groups in Nairobi. The study found Students (M=48.44),
pg. 81
Employed (45.11), Self-Employed (M=52.00) since the p value was less than 0.05. Further
the study established that Employed and Non Employed respondents had a bigger standard
deviation of above 27 which implies that there was a bigger difference on how respondents
gave their responses.
For Perceptions towards Social Media Advertising: The realized ANOVA value was F=
1.017, p=0.377 Thus the Aspects towards social media advertisement were not significantly
different among the Three demographic groups in Nairobi. The study found Students
(M=68.88), Employed (68.00), Self-Employed (M=76.89) since the p value was less than
0.05. Further the study established that respondents had a bigger standard deviation of
17.029 which implies that there was a bigger difference on how respondents gave their
responses.
pg. 82
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
5
Overview
This chapter presents the summary findings of the study, recommendations and
conclusion. The overall research problem addressed in the study state that although many
young people are familiar with internet advertising and spend most of their internet
browsing time social media, more research on their practices, attitudes, perceptions and
buying behaviors can inform strategic advertising on the internet.
To investigate the statement, the researcher sought to determine: (i). The extent and
use of social media among the youth. (ii). Facebook effects on youth buying behaviors.
(iii). Attitudes and perceptions towards advertising on the social media and Facebook in
particular. The researcher used descriptive research methodology and a questionnaire was
used to collect data from the respondents. Data collected represented their perceptions,
attitudes and buying behavior practices.
5.1
5.1.1
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The extent and use of social media among the youth
The study found out that social media is popular among the youth in Nairobi. Among the
social networking sites that most of them have subscribed to include: Facebook, Linkedln,
Youtube, Tagged, Twitter, WhatsApp, Flicker, Hi5 and Myspace. Facebook is the only
social networking site that every respondent in the three demographic groups have an
active account. WhatsApp and Twitter follow closely with the most respondents as their
members respectively. WhatsApp is the latest invention of social networking site and this
pg. 83
shows that the rate at which new social media platforms are being developed and accepted
by the youth is rapid and therefore more studies need to be done to examine their
effectiveness as platforms of advertising. It was noted that most of the youth visit Facebook
site several times a day and only a few visits the site once a month. Most of the respondents
spent time getting in touch with friends and keeping up to date with social events. Other
activities that the respondents did when logged in to Facebook among the three
demographic groups are as follows: Most time on Facebook among the youth was spent
on:
1. Keeping in touch with friends
2. Keeping up to date with social events
3. Getting information on new products and brands
4. Sharing videos, Articles, pictures
5. Making new friends
6. Passing time
7. Conducting business
Most time on Facebook among the employed youth was spent on:
1. Keeping in touch with friends
2. Keeping up to date with social events
3. Getting information on new products and brands
4. Sharing videos, Articles, pictures
5. Making new friends
pg. 84
6. Passing time
7. Conducting business
Most time on Facebook among the self-employed youth was spent on:
1. Keeping in touch with friends
2. Keeping up to date with social events
3. Getting information on new products and brands
4. Sharing videos, Articles, pictures
5. Conducting business
6. Making new friends
7. Passing time
The findings show that among the three groups of the youth, the students and the
employed have the same order of priorities unlike the self-employed who gave higher
priority to conducting business as opposed to making new friends and passing time. These
finding show that the youth are using Facebook as a platform for social reasons more than
business oriented reasons. The findings also show that there is no significant difference
regarding the way youth across the three demographic groups spend their time on
Facebook. Finally it was noted that most of the respondents are connected to over 400
Facebook friends and are members of less than 10 companies.
5.1.2 Facebook effects on youth buying behaviors
The study found out that most of the youth noticed advertisement messages while on
Facebook. Most of them acknowledged the fact that they come across advertisement
pg. 85
messages very often. This shows that Facebook as a social media platform is appropriate
for advertising. The study also found that most of the respondents pay attention to the
advertisement messages. The finding show that among the three youth groups, the reasons
why the students pay attention to advertising messages are:
1. Relevance to something of their interest
2. They recognized the brand/product/company
3. Out of curiosity
4. Were captivated by the advert design
5. To find out if the advert were for free goods and services
Among the employed:
1. Relevance to something of their interest
2. They recognized the brand/product/company
3. Out of curiosity
4. Were captivated by the advert design
5. To find out if the advert were for free goods and services
Among the self-employed:
1. Relevance to something of their interest
2. They recognized the brand/product/company
3. Were captivated by the advert design
4. To find out if the advert were for free goods and services
5. Out of curiosity
pg. 86
The findings show that the students and the employed share the same order of priority
on why they pay attention to advertisement messages encountered on Facebook. On the
other hand, the self-employed youth were noted to differ slightly by giving less priority to
curiosity as a reason for paying attention to the adverts.
However, the findings reveal that most of the youth (i.e. half of the respondents) have
never purchased anything as a result of advertisement encountered on Facebook. This was
equal across the three demographic groups. This finding directly answers this study’s second
research question: To what extent does advertising on Facebook influence youth buying
behaviors? It was found out that advertising on Facebook has less influence on the youth’s
buying behavior. Finally, the findings noted that among the respondents, 35 percent have
ever advertised something on Facebook while 65 percent have never. The findings show
that most of those who advertised on Facebook created advertisement messages and
posted them on their “Wall Page” while 2 percent officially paid for an advertising slot on
Facebook. It is worth noting that adverting on the wall pages by established business
enterprises is discouraged. Facebook achieves this through filtering mechanisms which
blocks such adverts from appearing on the newsfeed.
5.1.3 Youths attitudes and perceptions among the demographic groups
The hypothesis of this research study states: “The attitudes and perceptions that the youth
in Nairobi have towards advertising on the social media and in particular Facebook differ
across the three demographic groups.” is driven from the research question number three
which aimed at answering the question: To what extent does the youth’s attitudes and
pg. 87
perceptions towards social media advertising and Facebook in particular differ among the
three demographic groups? To capture the data that was analyzed to answer this question,
the following two areas were considerd:
5.1.3.1 Part A: Attitudes towards Facebook advertising
The following dispositions of Facebook advertising were inquired from the respondents
across the three demographic groups:

Advertising on Facebook is informative

Ads placed on Facebook are creatively designed

Facebook advertising is annoying

Facebook ads are time wasting diversion

Facebook advertising violates privacy

Adverting authorities should put restriction on what is advertised on Facebook

Facebook offers good ad avoidance mechanisms

I can recommend my friends to certain advertising on Facebook pages
The following findings show that the youth across the three demographic groups don’t
differ much in their attitudes towards Facebook advertising. A look at each dispositional
variable independently shows the following:
Dispositional Valuable 1: Advertising on Facebook is informative
It was noted that among the three demographic groups, most of the respondents agreed
that Facebook advertising is informative. This confirms an earlier finding where a majority
of the respondents give a high priority to the fact that most of their time on Facebook is
spent getting information on new products and brands.
pg. 88
Dispositional Valuable 2: Ads placed on Facebook are creatively designed
The finding note that most of the respondents across the three demographic groups agreed
that Facebook adverts are well designed and that means that they were appealing and thus
grabbing the attention of people. This also means that Facebook as a social media provides
a good platform for advertisers to display their advertising messages.
Dispositional Valuable 3: Facebook advertising is annoying
The findings note that most of the respondents across the three demographic groups
disagree with the notion that Facebook advertising is annoying. This fact strengthens the
earlier disposition that Facebook advertising is informative. This finding reveal that
although most of the respondents were found not to have been influenced by Facebook
advertising in their buying behavior, the general attitudes towards advertising on social
media (which a majority of them use mainly to keep in touch with their friends) is positive.
Dispositional Valuable 4: Advertising on Facebook is entertaining
Most of the respondents across the three groups agreed that the advertisement messages
on Facebook offers a source of entertainment. This can be interpreted to mean that as a
platform, Facebook offers to its clients diverse forms of advertising for example video
adverts, 2d and 3d animated advertising together with other more traditional forms of
e.g. banners are supported in Facebook. This gives more room for creativity in advert
production.
Dispositional Valuable 5: Facebook ads are time wasting diversion
Most of the respondents disagreed with the notion that Facebook ads are a time wasting
diversion. This means that the interface layout of this social media platform is designed in
a way that its users can focus attention to whatever activities they are engaged in without
pg. 89
the unnecessary intrusions by advertising messages. This can also explain why most of the
respondents have not shown negative attitudes towards Facebook advertising.
Dispositional Valuable 6: Facebook advertising violates privacy
Most of the youth across the three groups disagreed with the notion that Facebook
advertising tampers with their privacy while online. This could mean that although earlier
on during its formative stages Facebook had issues to do with privacy of its member’s data,
the respondents don’t seem concerned about it. However the Facebook management
moved very quickly and solved the problem. Perhaps that is why most of the respondents
don’t have a problem with privacy.
Dispositional Valuable 7: Advertising authority should put restriction on what is advertised
on Facebook
Most of the youth agreed that there should be a restriction on what should be advertised
on this social media. This raises an issue of the content of Facebook advertisements in
relation to ethical concerns in different geographic locations where Facebook is accessible.
Otherwise this could be a good area of further research in the field of online advertising in
general.
Dispositional Valuable 8: Facebook offers good ad avoidance mechanism
Most of the respondents were satisfied with the mechanism that Facebook offers for
avoiding (mainly through blocking) advertisement messages which the user is not interested
with. This means that most of the respondents are technology savvy and are efficient
internet surfers.
pg. 90
Dispositional Valuable 9: I can recommend my friends to certain advertisements on
Facebook pages
The findings note that most of the respondents can recommend their friends to certain
advertisements on Facebook pages. This further reveals that the youth in Nairobi does not
hold negative attitudes toward Facebook advertising.
5.1.3.2 Part B: Perceptions towards social media advertising in general
The following aspects of perceptions towards social media advertising in general were
inquired from the respondents across the three demographic groups:

Timeliness

Effectiveness

Usefulness

Informativeness

Friendliness

Accuracy

Enjoyability

Interesting

Credibility
The following findings shows that the youth across the three demographic groups don’t
differ much in their perception in the outlined aspects of social media advertising in general.
A look at each variable independently shows the following:
pg. 91
Variable 1: Timeliness
The findings note that most of the youth perceive advertising on the social media to be
timely. This means that given chance to give advice on the choice of media to advertise
on, the youth in Nairobi could give a priority to social media.
Variable 2: Effective
Most of the students and employed respondents perceived that social media advertising is
effective while the self-employed were seen to be highly discerning on the same. This
means that going by the nature of their occupation this group perhaps is trying to market
some of their business activities via Facebook. This also means that a study done to
investigate the effectiveness of advertising on the social media is viable.
Variable 3: Useful
The most respondents among the students and employed perceive social media advertising
to be useful while the self-employed group had a strong perception on the usefulness of
social media advertising.
Variable 4: Informative and Others
Most of the respondents have strong perception that social media advertising is
informative. This confirms the earlier finding that the youth in their different groups find
value in being members of various social media platforms especially Facebook and though
they many not yet have been influenced in making buying decisions. Most of the youth
also perceive social media advertising to be Friendly, Accurate, Enjoyable and Interesting.
Finally, the interpretations based on the variables used by the researcher to gain insight
into the attitudes and perceptions that the youth have towards advertising on Facebook
and other social media websites in general, overwhelmingly show that the students,
pg. 92
employed and the self-employed youth in Nairobi have positive attitudes and perceptions
towards social media advertising.
5.1.4 How attitudes and perceptions differ among three demographic groups
ANOVA statistical technique was used to compute the differences between certification
indexes levels of all the items (aspects) investigated for all the three groups in Part A and
Part B and the following results were realized:
Part A: Computation on how the attitudes towards advertising on Facebook differ among
the three groups
The realized ANOVA value of F=0.164, P=0.850 shows that there was no significant
difference among the three demographic groups (it was found that students (M=48.44),
Employed (45.11), self-Employed (M=52.00)) since the P value is less than 0.05.
Part B: Computation on how the perceptions towards advertising on social media in
general differ among the three groups
The realized ANOVA value was F= 1.017, p=0.377 of the aspects towards social
media advertisement were not significantly different among the three demographic groups
(it was found that Students (M=68.88), Employed (68.00), Self-Employed (M=76.89))
since the p value was less than 0.05.
Finally the findings of part A and Part B above show that there was no significant
differences among the attitudes and perceptions of the respondents across the three
demographic groups, respectively, and leads to the Rejection of the H ypothesis of the
pg. 93
study which states that: “The attitudes and perceptions that the youth in Nairobi have
towards advertising on the social media and in particular Facebook differ across the three
demographic groups.”
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.2.1 Policy recommendations
In light of these findings, it is therefore recommended that businesses be sensitized on
social media advertisement attitudes and perceptions that youth and other demographics
have on this internet phenomena. Organization’s policy makers should also promote these
factors in enhancing their organization’s interaction with their customers over the social
media platforms if they have to enhance their market performance.
5.2.2 Recommendations for further studies
The study collected data from the Students, Employed and Self-Employed respondents
in Nairobi. However, the findings on the attitudes and perceptions of Facebook and social
media in general as a medium of advertising in Nairobi could be different compared with
other regions. Thus a similar study should be undertaken in other regions to get a better
understanding of the attitudes and perceptions of social media as a medium of advertising
in Kenya.
The study recommends that other similar studies be done on County by County basis
so as to compare user’s attitudes and perceptions towards Facebook and other social media
as a medium of advertising. The study also recommends that similar studies be done on
user’s attitudes and perceptions towards social media as a medium of advertising among
pg. 94
those who know about it, in particular Facebook, but don’t have access to internet or have
refused to subscribe to these platforms. Finally a similar survey can be done to find out
how professionals e.g. top company’s CEO, government institutions and other executives
in Kenya use social media.
5.3 CONCLUSION
The findings of the study overwhelmingly support the fact that Facebook
advertisement plays a big role in advertising. The failure of any organization to use
Facebook and other social media platforms for reaching out to its customers will lock out
many of them from expanding their brand visibility. The results also revealed that once an
organization decides to use the social media for the sole reasons of advertising, it should
be very conversant with the attitudes and perception formed among users of the social
media used. If the target is the youth, then their attitudes and perception in various
demographic groups need to be established in order to significantly reach them through
advertisement messages. Also it is important to establish the influence that advertising on
a particular social media has towards a target group in terms of buying behavior.
The study notes that a majority of youth are conversant with social media advertising
and many of those who are members of Facebook acknowledge that advertising on the
social media is prudent. However, although the majority of youth in Nairobi (students,
employed and self-employed) have not been influenced by Facebook advertising in making
personal buying decisions, their attitudes and perceptions towards advertising on the social
media is positive.
pg. 95
Finally, the findings clearly show that the best way for organizations to use Facebook
to reach the youth, is mainly as a platform of interacting with them on matters concerning
their products and services instead of targeting them with advertisement messages. In doing
so an organization is able to get feedback through the “comments” system. This enables
them to comprehend the needs of their customers better and make good decisions in
future.
5.3.1 Limitations of the study
The study was able to identify four limitations: First, the study collected data from the
Students, Employed and Self-Employed respondents in Nairobi city only. The study was
limited to youths with an occupation within the city at the time of the study thus nonworking youth were not considered. Therefore, questionnaires that landed into the hands
of those who knew about Facebook as a social media platform but were not subscribed
members did not submit the questionnaire. This lead to waste of resources and the fact
that their views were not captured in this study.
Secondly, the study findings are difficult to compare due to differences in nature of the
youths occupation since the survey did not inquire of the particular specialty of the
respondents. Therefore it would be interesting to examine whether there are differences
in the degree of social media use with regard to occupation. Thirdly, the study analyzed
only the attitudes and perceptions of the youth towards social media as an advertising
media. There are other indicators which the study never assessed such as the attitudes and
perceptions of other demographics and particularly those who do not use Facebook. Also
the study did not find out how easy it is to use Facebook as an advertising medium.
pg. 96
Fourthly, the time frame within which study was based was too short and therefore the
results may not be comprehensive and conclusive enough if Facebook advertisement have
operated for more than the duration studied.
pg. 97
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pg. 104
APPENDENCES
APPENDIX I: Questionnaire
This study is a requirement for the partial fulfillment of the award of the Master of Arts Degree
in Design from the University of Nairobi in the School of Art and Design. This is an academic
research and all information collected from you will be treated with strict confidentiality.
SECTION A
Kindly respond to all the questions by ticking in the boxes and writing in the spaces provided.
1. What is your Age?
[ ] 19 – 22
[ ] 23 – 26
[ ] 27 – 30
[ ] 31 – 34
2. What is your Gender?
[ ] Male
[ ] Female
3. What is your Occupation?
[ ] Student
[ ] Employed
[ ] Self-employed
4. If you are a student, what type of Institution do you attend?
[ ] College
[ ] Polytechnic
[ ] University
SECTION B
1. How often do you use the internet?
[ ] Hourly
[ ] Daily
[ ] Bi – Weekly
[ ] Weekly
[ ] Monthly
2. Where do you access the internet most of the time?
[ ] School
[ ]
[ ] Cyber Cafes
[ ] Home
[ ] Other Places (Please specify) ...............................
3. What kind of device do you mostly use to access the internet?
[ ] Desktop computers
[ ] Laptop
[ ] Mobile Phones
[ ] Smartphones
[ ] Tablets
SECTION C
1. Which of the following Social Networking Sites do you have an account with?
(You can select more than one)
[ ] Facebook
[ ] LinkedIn
[ ] YouTube
[ ] Tagged
[ ] Twitter
[ ] WhatsApp
[ ] Flicker
[ ] Hi5
[ ] Myspace
[ ] Others (Please specify) ...............................
pg. 105
2. How many times do you visit Facebook when connected to the internet?
[ ] Once a day
[ ] Several times a day
[ ] Several times a month
[ ] Once a month
[ ] Once a week
4. How many connections (friends/followers) do you have on Facebook profile on average?
[ ] Less than 10
[ ] 51 to 100
[ ] 151 to 200
[ ] 201 to 250
[ ] 300 to 350
[ ] 351 to 400
[ ] 101 to 150
[ ] 251 to 300
[ ] more than 400
5. What do you spend most of your time doing on Facebook? (You can tick more than one answer)
[ ] Conducting business
[ ]
Getting information on new products and brands
[ ] Keeping in touch with friends
[ ] Keeping up to date with social events
[ ] Sharing videos, Articles, Pictures
[ ] Making new friends
[ ] Passing time
[ ] Others (please specify) ..............................
6. How many organizations’/companies’ Facebook pages are you a member of ?
[ ] None
[ ] Less than 10
[ ] 11 to 20
[ ] 21 to 30
[ ] More than 30
7. When browsing in Facebook, do you notice any form of advertisement messages?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No
8. If you answered “Yes” in the Question 7 above, describe how often you come across advertisement
messages on Facebook?
[ ] Very often
[ ] Often
[ ] Sometimes
[ ] Rarely
[ ] Very Rarely
9. Do you pay attention to some of the adverts you encounter on your Facebook page?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No
10. If you answered “Yes” to Question 9, what prompts you to? (You can tick more than one answer)
[ ] Relevance to something of my interest
[ ] I recognize the brand/company/product
[ ] I am captivated by the advertising design
[ ]
[ ] Out of curiosity
[ ] Others ( please specify) ..........................................
11. If you answered “No” to Question 9, what prompts you not to? (You can tick more than one answer)
[ ] It’s completely irrelevant to me
[ ] I’m so used to the adverts
[ ] Message in the advert not always clear
[ ] The quality of advert design is poor [
] Other (please specify) ......................................
12. How often do you purchase goods/service or attend events based on advertising messages you encounter
on Facebook?
[ ] Never
[ ] Rarely
[ ] Sometimes
[ ] Often
[ ] Always
13. Have you ever advertised anything on Facebook?
[ ] Yes
[ ] No
14. If your answer to question 13 above is Yes, which approach did you use?
[ ] Created a post on my wall page
[ ] Paid for advertising space as per Facebook commercial advertising guideline
pg. 106
15. To what extent do you agree/disagree with each of the following aspects of advertising on Facebook
Agree
Disagree
Indifferent
• Advertising on Facebook is informative
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Ads placed on Facebook are creatively designed
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Facebook advertising is annoying
[
]
[
]
[
]
•Advertising on Facebook is entertaining
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Facebook ads are a time wasting diversion
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Facebook advertising violates privacy
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Advertising authorities should put restrictions on what is
advertised on Facebook
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Facebook offers good ad avoidance mechanisms
[
]
[
]
[
]
• I can recommend my friends to certain advertising on
Facebook pages
[
]
[
]
[
]
16. Social media advertising in general possess the following attributes listed below: (please indicate your
level of agreement/disagreement)
S trongly
agree
Agree
Indifferent
Disagree
S trongly
disagree
• Timely
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Effective
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Useful
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Informative
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Friendly
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Accurate
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Enjoyable
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Interesting
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
• Credible
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
[
]
Thank you for responding to all the questions
pg. 107
APPENDIX II: LETTER TO THE RESPONDENTS OF QUESTIONNAIRE
MARTIN MUTUMA KITHINJI
University Of Nairobi,
P.O BOX 43844.
NAIROBI.
THE DIRECTOR,
P.O BOX.
NAIROBI
Dear Sir/Madam
REF: RESEARCH: REQUEST FOR ADMINISTRATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE
I am student of University Of Nairobi pursuing Master of Arts in design, a Kenya citizen of national
ID number 23635878. In regard to the above mentioned subject, I am working on my Project
entitled: Advertising on the social Media: an Analysis of the Youth’s Responses to Facebook
Advertising in the City of Nairobi .
It is for this reason that I kindly request to administer a questionnaire to the Students and
Employees in your School or company
Your assistance will be highly appreciated
Yours sincerely
MARTIN MUTUMA KITHINJI
pg. 108
APPENDIX III: RESEARCH BUDGET
ITEM/ACTIVITY
PRICE PER UNIT QUANTITY
(Ksh.)
TOTAL
COST(Ksh.)
a) Notebooks
100
20
2000
b) Pens
10/pen
20 pens
200
c) Markers
25/marker
10 markers
250
2. Typing Services
15/page
200 pages
3,000
3. Printing services
5/page
500 pages
35000
4. Binding Services
50/booklet
30 booklets
1500
5. Photocopying services
2/page
800 pages
1,600
6. Internet Services
1/minute
1500 minutes
1,500
7. Telephone Services
8/minute
500 minutes
14000
8. Travel expenses
500/day
40
40,000
9. Research Assistance
n/a
n/a
30,000
10. Miscellaneous expenses
n/a
n/a
10,000
1. Stationary
TOTAL COST
139,000
pg. 109