Exploring Advertising's Impact on Buyer Decision Making Process

This research paper examines the effects of advertising on the buyer's decision-making process, focusing on the relationship between emotional responses and the attitudinal and behavioral aspects of buying behavior. The study utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data analysis methods, including an action research process, to assess the impact of advertising on consumers, with a specific focus on gender differences. The literature review covers the effectiveness of advertising, measures such as advertisement recognition and recall, and the various definitions and roles of advertising in influencing consumer behavior. The methodology involves gathering data from 110 respondents to analyze attitudinal buying behavior and the overall impact of advertising on consumer choices, considering factors such as emotional connection, brand awareness, and the stages of the consumer decision-making process.

Running head: ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING
PROCESS
Advertisings effect on the buyers decision making process
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1ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Abstract
Advertising refers to the form of communication that is generally intended for
convincing the audiences in order to make a purchase as well as for taking some actions upon
the information, products or services etc. It is to note that the process of purchase is a
decision-making process that is under risk. This research study is in relation of the affects or
impacts of advertisements in the decision making process of the buyers. It investigates the
relation in between the independent variables that are emotional responses with the
behavioural and the attitudinal aspect of the buyers’ buying behaviours by means of tapping
the responses of a total of 110 respondents. The main objective of the research study is to
analyse and assess the impact of advertising and analyse it in between males and females.

2ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Table of Contents
Abstract......................................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Literature Review...................................................................................................................4
3. Methodology..........................................................................................................................7
4. Data Analysis and Interpretation............................................................................................9
5. Results..................................................................................................................................11
6. Conclusions..........................................................................................................................11
References:...............................................................................................................................13

3ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Topic: Advertisings Effect on the Buyers Decision Making Process
1. Introduction
Almost each one of use has grown up in a world that is flooded with a large range of
mass media such as television, films, magazines, advertising, music, movies, internet and
newspaper. Among all the marketing weapons, advertising is considered to be the subset of
promotional mix and that is one among the 4Ps in the category of marketing mix, i.e.,
product, price, place and promotion. Being one of the promotional strategies, advertising do
serves as one of the key tools in the making of product awareness among the minds of all the
potential customers in order to take an eventual purchase decision. It is to note that
advertising, by each and every medium, influences the audiences (Xu et al., 2011). However,
television is always considered to be one of the powerful and the strongest means of
advertising because of its mass reach. Due to this reason, it has the potential to influence the
attitudes of the individual, their lifestyle, behaviour, exposure as well as even the culture of
the entire country.
In this modern world of advanced science and technology, each and every one is
surrounded by media and advertising and therefore, it is very important to what actually
influences a person or an individual to act in the way he or she acts while buying certain
things. With the same, it is also important for an advertiser to understand the various buying
behaviours and tendencies of the everyday customers. The evolution of advertising and
advertisement dates back into the earlier times (Kumar & Raju, 2013). The ancient societies
used to make use of pictorial signs and symbols in order to attract the users of the product.
Hence, it can be said that these elements were in use for the purpose of product promotion
over centuries. In the today’s modern world, advertisement has become one of the key

4ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
sources of communication in between the manufacturers and the customers who buy their
products.
In the current world of globalisation, it is of utmost importance for the advertisers to
delivers the advertising information and message to the buyers without the use of advertising.
However, this research study has been elaborated on the attitudinal behaviour of the males
and the females in various different buying behaviour. The main objective of this study are to
find out advertising by means of attitudinal buying behaviour consumer as well as to analyse
the impact of advertisement by means of consumer buying behaviour.
2. Literature Review
Advertising is basically a form of communication which has been created in order to
convince the audiences such as the viewers, listeners and the readers to try or to buy some
products, services or ideas. Sometimes, it is also regarded as an attempt to be used as a
message which could communicate with some people for convincing them for making a
decision or some actions or changes. With the same, Wijaya (2015) has defined advertising as
a process of communication that view advertising from its functional perspective. It is a type
of communication which has many impacts which are basically linked to the other forms of
communication. There are many studies that have examined how effective was advertising in
past decades. The most common measures of the effectiveness of advertising comprise of
advertisement recognition, advertisement recall, and brand awareness, attitude towards those
advertisements, clicks or the click through rates, the brand as well as the purchase
consideration (Hamborg et al., 2012). Among these most common measures, the click on
advertisements, the attitudes towards the advertisements and the potential to recall the
advertisements are of the primary focus of the current study (Von der Fehr & Stevik, 1998).
Also, many researchers looked for differences in gender and age. They also then

5ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
differentiated the different mediums through which the ads are presented and in which kind
of style. Through many means advertising can be streamed a lot more today than there were
in the past. In most of the research studies the effectiveness of these three mentioned
measures were assessed by their potential to predict the purchase making decision of the
buyers. Sales promotion, advertising and the public relations are regarded to be the tools of
mass communication that are available for the marketers (Papasolomou & Melanthiou, 2012).
As the name itself suggests, mass communication makes use of the same messages for each
and every one in a group of audience. In the present days, there are many definitions of
advertising. In other words, it can be said that today, there are boundless number of
definitions of the term advertising. As defined by Saaty (2013), advertising refers to the
process of communication, also known as marketing process. Also, Bakshy et al. (2012) in
this context has defined advertising as a social and an economic process. On the other hand,
Jackson (2011) have defined it as a persuasion or information process. Advertising is also
defined as paid, non-personal communication through various media by business firms, non-
profit organization, and individuals who are in some way identified in the advertising
message and who hope to inform or persuade members of a particular audience is of the
opinion that advertising is used to establish a basic awareness of the product or service in the
mind of the potential customer and to build up knowledge about it (Chan, Wu & Xie, 2011).
The main aim of advertising is to influence the buying behaviour of the buyers and
this impact is strengthened or is changes often in the memories of the people (Saleem &
Abideen, 2011). The memories regarding the brans consist of the associations which are
linked with the brand name within the minds of the customers. Such cognition of the brands
influence the evaluation, considerations and lastly, the final purchases. As stated by Lee,
Edwards and La Ferle (2014), the main aim of the buying behaviour analysis of the consumer
is to explain the reason why they act in that specific manner under certain situations (Niazi et

6ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
al., 2012). It tries for determining the various factors which have the potential of influencing
the buying behaviour of the consumers, particularly in terms of economic, psychological and
social aspects. When young people choose advertising information and characters as their
role models, they may not only identify with them but also intend to copy them in terms of
how they dress and what they are going to buy (Bakshi, 2012).
There are few positive impacts of advertising and the two most significant of all are
that of connecting the customers emotionally with the brand or company and building
awareness (Hudson et al., 2015). Providing with an example for building up of awareness, a
new brand could really benefit to a great extent if a celebrity inscribes on it. With the same, it
could also attract the attention and the inquisitiveness of the customers in order to see what
product is being inscribed. Moreover, there are many researches that have shown that the
customers could get higher level of message recalls if the product or the brand is inscribed or
is endorsed by the celebrities. These celebrities have a very strong and positive influence on
the views of the fans as because of the fact that fans are likely to be willing for purchasing the
products as their stars are endorsing them (McCormick, 2016).
The buying behaviour of the consumers are known as cognitive process (Thogersen et
al., 2017). The customers are aware of the needs and wants and the search for the possible
ways of satisfying it. Consumer awareness is not an automatic process, instead it is a
selective external process. For example, the customers are exposed to hundreds of messages
which persuades them from advertising religious groups, food products, political organisation
and other different resources. Such a mass information which seeks out the attention of the
customers is then filtered out by the individuals for making the decision in buying any sort of
product. As per Zhang and Benyoucef (2016), there are five stages of the customer decision
making process and they are problem recognition > Information search > information
evaluation > purchase decision > evaluation after purchase making. With the same, it is also

7ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
to note that the customer information sources also have a total of four groups and those are-
personal sources, public sources, commercial sources and experience sources.
3. Methodology
For conducting a research study in an organised and systematic manner, it is very
crucial for the researcher to have a well-defined idea of the approach or the approached that
he or she would undertake to complete the research. He or she must also be very clear about
the data collection method that is relevant to conduct the research. Research methodology
assists in providing theoretical frameworks regarding the research method that is being use
for conducting the study (Gale et al., 2013). However, it is to note that this study have made
use of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis method for better evaluation. The main
purpose of quantitative research method is quantification of the data. It allows the process of
generalizations of the results and the outcomes from the sample of a group or populations of
interest as well as the measurement of the incidences of different opinions and views in the
provided sample. On the other hand, qualitative research is regarded to be very suitable for
gathering an in-depth understandings of the underlying motivations and the various different
reasons (De Massis & Kotlar, 2014). This type of analysis provided an insight into the setting
of a specific problem or issue. Hence, it is to state that this study has used combined data in
order to improve the evaluation process through ensuring that the limitations of a single type
of data are more balanced by the strengths of the other one (Lewin et al., 2015). It would
ensure that the understanding of the data and the subject is well-improved by integrating
various methods of knowing.
Furthermore, it is also to state that this study have also made use of Action research
process for conducting the research study more effectively (Lewis, 2015). This research is
always relevant to the engaged participants. In this process, relevancy is guaranteed as of the

8ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
fact that the main focus of every research project is determined by the researchers that are
also regarded as the primary consumers of the research findings. The process of Action
Research comprise of seven consecutive steps and they are:
 Selection of the focus
 Clarification of the theories
 Identification of the research questions
 Collection of the data
 Analysis of the data
 Reporting the results
 Taking informed actions
However, for this study, the data are gathered in a well-developed manner that is
structured in five point Likert Scale is also considered (Boone & Boone, 2012). There
were questionnaires set and they were distributed among the different respondents of the
research. The data for the study is collected in a total time span of five days and then the
responses were fed into the SPSS (the Statistical Package for Social Science) of IBM for
the evaluation and analysis.
The questionnaire that is set has been classified into two different parts like part I and
part II. The first Part explains the awareness among the consumers regarding the
advertisements. On the other hand, the second part describes recent purchase of the
customers that they had done by the help of advertisements that they have viewed.
In this process the Likert scale has been taken into consideration and that consists of 5
point scale and they are:
 Strongly agree (1 point)
 Agree (2 point)

9ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
 No opinion (3 point)
 Disagree (4 point)
 Strongly disagree (5 point) (Brown, 2011)
4. Data Analysis and Interpretation
The analysis of the data collected is one of the key methods involved in a research
process. It is to note that data acts as the primary sources of knowledge in any research study
and therefore, it is imperative to choose the most suitable and effective data collection
method. However, a total of 100 individuals of age ranging from 15 to 60 were interviewed
and were asked their preferred medium of advertisements along with the types of
advertisements they like the most. 44 among them are males and the remaining 56 are
females.
Age range 15-20 21-30 31-45 46-55 55- 60
16 22 22 21 19
Preferred
Medium
Print Television Radio Phone Internet All
25 41 6 12 13 4
Types of
Advertisement
Funny Creative Unique Inform Meaningful Short Off
beat
17 23 10 6 20 3 2
In
offensive
Emotion Crazy Simple Genuine Straigh
t
forwar
d
1 4 6 4 2 3
Table 1
Interpretation
From the above table, it can be analysed that television is the most popular medium of
entertainment among the people and it is mainly through this medium that different
advertisements are delivered to them. With the same, it is also to note that lot of people are

10ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
more appealed towards the advertisements that are either meaningful, funny or creative in
appearance and nature.
Furthermore, a total of 110 respondents are been asked the following questions in
order to assess the effectiveness of advertisements and come to a conclusion that is more
accurate.
Parameter SA A NO DA SDA
Are you interested in watching good
advertisements?
42 41 22 3 2
Do you watch new advertisements only? 44 47 12 6 1
Do you think there are some advertisements
that are annoying?
43 33 29 2 3
Do you like offbeat advertisements more than
the normal ones?
38 31 34 4 3
Do you think advertisements are creative but
sensible
30 25 16 22 17
Do you think advertisements hold more
messages?
40 38 32 0 0
Are advertisements believable? 33 20 15 25 17
Are the messages of the advertisements
relevant?
36 44 30 0 0
Are there benefits of advertisements? 44 20 29 14 3
Do advertisements have some effect on you? 36 44 30 0 0
Are advertisements visually appealing and
engaging?
38 45 27 0 0
Is the duration of the advertisements ok? 17 20 21 25 27
Is the advertisements able to convey the
intended message?
20 24 24 23 19
Did you feel convinced about an
advertisements and buy product?
44 39 27 0 0
Are you comfortable with watching such
advertisements in future?
18 29 42 12 9
Did the advertisements change your opinions
and the prejudice about any item?
43 38 29 0 0
Table 2

11ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Are you interested in watching good advertisements?
Do you like offbeat advertisements more than the normal ones?
Do you think advertisements are creative but sensible
Are advertisements believable?
Are there benefits of advertisements?
Are advertisements visually appealing and engaging?
Is the advertisements able to convey the intended message?
Are you comfortable with watching such advertisements in future?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Figure 1
SDA DA NO A SA
Interpretation
From table 2, it could be stated that none have disagreed of the fact that they get
convinced for making a purchase through advertisements. Also, there are many to do find
benefits in advertisements and that change their buying behaviour and tendencies. Also, none
have disagreed that advertisements do provide relevant messages.
5. Results
From the above analysis, it can be said that the findings of the research study suggest
the below mentioned points:
 Advertisements are potential enough to change the opinions of the consumers about a
specific product
 The customers are likely to watch more number of advertisements that could affect
their opinions about certain products
 Advertisements have the potential to easily convince the consumers for the different
products and services

12ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
 Advertisements are strong means of communication for conveying the intended
message of the manufacturers to their target group of customers
 Too long or too short advertisements are not beneficial enough
 The advertisements must be engaging and appealing to the consumers in order to
involve in the process of advertisements.
 Televisions are more preferred among the customers to view advertisements on
different products and services.
 Advertisements have the potential of changing the prejudices one holds about a
particular item
6. Conclusions
From the above analysis, it is to be concluded that as because of the fact that the
buyers should act on the bases of incomplete information, they consciously and automatically
sustain the risk in each and every purchase as well as non-purchase decision. Any
advertisement can have an impact on a person’s decision to buy or not to buy something or to
like or not to like something. The way it is presented and how it is structured influences
people’s feelings in many different ways depending on the person. But people want to be
informed about the product and have a genuine feeling it will benefit their lives. The size of
the risks that the buyers or the customers perceive depend on the vitality of a specific
purchase as well as on the quantity of the relevant information regarding the category of the
product as well as the competing brands. A purchase decision could be regarded as the
process of optimisation by means of which the customers seek the brand and the product
which would yield greater satisfaction to them. Their process of choice could be regarded as
the search for some of the most effective and satisfying trade-offs among all the brands which
possess the desirable attributes at different steps or levels. Such view of roles of the
additional information in the process of customer purchase decision has many implications

13ADVERTISINGS EFFECT ON THE BUYERS DECISION MAKING PROCESS
for advertising. An advertisement that is reaching the potential buyer when he or she is
seeking some relevant information will have a much greater impact, as because of the fact
that the buyer is afforded the time and the efforts that are necessary for seeking out this
information himself and is less likely to turn to the other competing brand advertisements for
obtaining more additional information. In simpler words, it can be stated that the buyers are
generally more responsive to many different brand advertisements when they are seeking
information on those brands.
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