ASSESSMENT OF ADVERTISING AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY FOR MASS MEDIA ORGANIZATION

ASSESSMENT OF ADVERTISING AS A SURVIVAL STRATEGY FOR MASS MEDIA ORGANIZATION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Nigeria Television Authority Enugu was established in the year 1960 by the Premier of an Eastern region of Nigeria Dr. Michael Okpara. It was the oldest television station in Nigeria. It was received in the thirteen states of the federation. The station has two studios and each of them equipped with video cameras and microphones, because of the tempograph of Enugu the studio and the transmitter are not con-sided. The transmitter is located about 15 kilometers away from the studio. The station transmitters on 201.75mhz video and 196.25 audio, both local and network programmes are received from the station. In the year 2003 the station was upgraded to a zonal network center. The implication of the above is that the station not only now receives both, also transmitte’s both network news and programmes. The zone covers Abia State, Akwa-Ibom state, Anambra state, Benue state, Cross-River state, Ebonyi state, Enugu state, Imo state and Rivers state. It can be said that the zone and its stations are fulfilling their primary functions of informing, educating and entertainment. The secondary function of NTA is that it creates employment opportunities Economic situation in Nigeria today and its attendant problems especially on the purchasing power of her citizens has greatly affected television usage.

In line with the above is the incessant arrests and sometimes close down of some media organizations in the country resulting from their beautifully designed progremmes targeted at attracting viewers but found provoking by the government.
The above mentioned problems in no small measure affected the smooth running of the mass media organization in Nigeria. Therefore, towards ensuring continuity in the business, it behooves the management of the mass media organization to evolve survival strategies via diversification of activities. A remarkable survival strategy often adopted, especially in terms of returns on the business and the creation of awareness is advertising. Advertising is an age-long phenomenon. It is a form of communication that usually informs potential customers of the availability of particular goods and services. It appeals to the consumers to buy or to use more of a particular brand of product or service (Arens, 2008). The origin of modern advertising can be traced to the new form of monopoly capitalism that emerged in the last decades of 19th century and early decades of the 20th century. The objective of mass media in opting for advertising is rooted in thus:
i. Trust worthiness of the mass media organization one hand that of the sponsor n the other side.
ii. Prestige of the sponsor of the advertisement.
iii. The quality of product being advertised etc.
The above mentioned variables or factors individually cannot influence advertising effectively but rather concerted interactions of efforts of these variables. Thus positive result can only be achieved by careful implementation of these variables systematically by the mass media.

1.2 THE STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEMS TRIED TO LOOK INTO THE FOLLOWING.

Competition is driving down advertising rates of broadcasting media. The number of channels and stations are increasing while the media as organization need to deploy an effective strategy to attract customer and survive in the present competitive market. The relevance of advertising in the sustenance of media organizations cannot be overstated. In fact, most media organizations will go out of business without advertising support. In a sense, the cost of producing publications and broadcasts, which would have been shouldered by media consumers, is subsidized by advertisers, such that readers, listeners and viewers only pay a fraction of the cost. Advertisers pay the bulk of the cost by willingly buying mass media spaces and air time to reach their potential customers who, coincidentally, are media consumers. Thus it is rampant to see may media organization who are no longer in business because they do not have customer who bring advertisement job for them. Also some media station have failed to market their services through advert hence causing low chances of attracting clients. Thus upon this premise that the research  problem of the study is focused on advertising a survival strategy for mass media organization.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY / OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study is to create knowledge on advertising effectiveness in mass media organization. It would also examine problems that hinder advertisements. 

1. How NTA Enugu use advertisements from their customers to generate revenue.
2. Whether the advertising strategies influence the viewers/ customers.
3. Whether there is enough revenue from it to sustain the organization.
4. To modify the strategies if not sustainable.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

 It is believed that the following people benefit from NTA Enugu.
ii. Advertising agencies / other customers
iii. Viewers of the station in had known both the old and the new products.
iv. The mass media organisation in enhancing its positioning in television house.
v. Furthermore, the result will help the mass media organization in identifying those strategies that will help them in manipulating the television viewer’s behaviour.
vi. To serve as a reference strategy to other broadcast media organization for purposes of research documentation.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Do customers bring advertisement for NTA Enugu?
2. Does NTA Enugu advertisement influence the customers?
3. Does NTA Enugu generate a lot of revenue from such advertisement for their survival?
4. Does NTA advertisement create awareness to the customers?

1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
In order to direct the major activities for this study in finding solutions to the statement of problems, the following hypotheses have been found relevant.

HYPOTHESIS ONE
Hi: Customers bring advertisements to NTA Enugu.
Ho: Customers do not bring advertisements to NTA Enugu.

HYPOTHESIS TWO
H2: NTA Enugu advertisements influence the customers and the advertising agencies / consumers
Ho: NTA Enugu advertisements do not influence the customers and the advertising agencies/consumers.

HYPOTHESIS THREE
H3: NTA Enugu generate a lot of revenue from such advertisements for their survival
Ho: NTA Enugu do not generate a lot of revenue from such advertisements for their survival

1.7 CONCEPTUAL AND OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS.
OPERATIONAL:
Advertising: Advertising according to Kotler (1993:100) is defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by identified sponsor. Besides, advertising per-se is a vehicle through which manufacturing companies, producers of goods organization, individuals etc communicate to their target audience.
Advertising is however, affected via the following channels.
i. Radio and television
ii. Outdoor displays (posters, bill boards) sign sky writing.
iii. Newspaper and magazine space.
iv. Direct mail 
v. Novelties (match boxes, pen, calendars)
vi. Tear pads (car, bus)
vii. Catalogs.
viii. Directories (Yellow pages and circulars.

Further more, advertising has many purposes.
a. Long term build up of the organization corporate image (institutional advertising)
b. Long term build up for a particular brand (brand advertising)
c. Information dissemination about a sale or service or event (classified advertising)
d. Announcement of a special sale (sale or promotional advertising)
e. Advocacy of a particular cause (advocacy advertising)

Alternatively, Kotler (1993:150) opined that advertising objectives can be classified as to whether their aims are to the following:
1. Information advertising with primary demand. This strategy has been used effectively in yogurt industry to inform customers of yogurts nutritional benefits and many uses.

2. Persuasive advertising has been used effectively in the demand for a particular brand. This strategy has been employed in the advertising of spirits paste, tires, automobiles etc.
However, some persuasive advertising has moved into category of comparison advertising, which seeks to establish the superiority of one brand through specific comparison with one or more other brand in the product class.
3. Reminder advertising is highly important in the nature stage of the product to keep customers thinking about the product. For example, expensive four colours coca-cola in magazines has the purpose not of informing or persuading but reminding people to purchase coca-cola.

Finally, the choice of the advertising objective according to Kotler (1993:200) should be based on a through analysis of the current market situation. For example, if the product is mature and the company is the market leader, and if brand image is low, the proper objective should be to stimulate more brand usage.
On the other hand, if the product is new, and the company is not the market leader, but its brand is superior to the leader, then the proper objective is to convince the market of the brand superiority.

It is pertinent to mention here that different channels of advertising have different levels of persuability on the target audience for example, television combines images and goggles and others use appropriate stimulators.

This study is a focus on the effectiveness of television advertising as a survival strategy of mass media organization. In other words, the study is on how mass media organization can effectively manipulate its advertising for the profitability of the organization.
Thus for a successful implementation of effective advertising strategy, mass media organizational design the following variables name:
i. Language creativity.
ii. Choice of appropriate page.
iii. Size of advertisement.
iv. Colour.
v. Nature and responsibility of communication.
vi. Credibility of the source of advertisement. 
SURVIVAL: Is the art of existing amidst odds?

STRATEGY: t is a part way of realizing organizational goals.

OPERATIONAL
Mass Media: On organization operations among all other things to inform, entertain, educate and serializing the economic needs of its environment or public either through newspapers, magazines, radio, television, satellite, internet. Etc.
ORGANISATION: An organization is defined as any administrative, management and financial structure through which the activities of its work units and individuals seek to achieve a predetermined goal.

1.8 ASSUMPTIONS
i. It is greatly believed that advertising per-se is the major contributor to the mass media organization, be it government owned.
ii. Finally, experts, internally manipulate the television advertising to catch the target consumers of commodities / service.
iii. A lot of revenue could be generated from such advertisements.

1.9 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY.
This study despite the anticipated huge contributions expected is, however constrained by the following:
1. THE CONSTRAINT:
The time from allotted for this study is so short as to cover all the major determinants required for more effective advertising.
2. MONEY CONSTRAINT:
The money at the disposal of these researchers is the meager.
This focusing the study only on one mass media.

4. Finally, the television organization chosen for the purpose of the study is a well known station therefore, some vital information needed for this study were not disclosed.

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