Television commercials (TVCs) and its influence on the Buying Decision of the middle-class urban teens of Bangladesh.

Abstract

The size of the teenage population is quite large in developing countries (1.6 billion), compared to the developed countries (240 million). The identical trend is also available in Bangladesh where the teenagers are about 21% of the total population. TV and TVCs have a major influence on the buying decisions of Bangladeshi middle-class teenagers like other developing counties, even with the emergence of digital and social media. As such, the research is focusing on the influence of TVCs in buying decision of the middle-class urban teenagers of Bangladesh. An elaborated multi-step research method including pertinent literature review, expert in-depth interview, focus group discussions and a structured questionnaire survey has been accomplished. Microsoft Excel and SPSS version 21 were used for the analysis of survey data. The study has observed that 95% of urban teens watch TV either regularly or occasionally, where females were more inclined (97%) to watch TV than males (93%). The majority of teens watch TV at night (71%) and in the evening (21%). The teens are found to prefer sports the most (41%) followed by drama serials (29%). The study has revealed that 89% of the respondents watch TVCs regularly or occasionally. The study has also explored that 67% of urban teens are influenced by TVCs to make purchase decisions, while the late teens were more influenced by TVCs (71%) than the early teens (62%). Majority of the respondents are fascinated by models or celebrities (65%) to watch the TVCs. These research findings will assist marketers and business professionals of Bangladesh as well as similar developing countries to target specific teenage segments, types of TVCs, peak hour of airing TVCs and models or celebrity endorsement while prepare cost effective brand communication plan. Corresponding author: Md. Shamsuzzaman Email addresses for the corresponding author: fatherofsaiki@gmail.com First submission received: 15th September 2018 Revised submission received: 27th February 2019 Accepted: 10th March 2019 1.0. The Introduction Watching Television (TV) and TV commercials (TVCs) is very much interrelated considering the commercial perspective as well as the entertainment and cognitive tool for the viewers. Bogdanovic (2013) defined television advertisement or commercial (TVA/TVC) as “any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas or products on the electronic media to end user”. Even with the emergence of digital and social media, TV and TVCs are still the best tools for brand building particularly for teens of developing countries. Having a high level of interest to be familiarized with a new product or service, teenagers tend to improve their lifestyle and standards of living individually and/or family as a whole. Ahmed, B. (2013) stated in his research finding that advertisements especially TVCs are big marketing weapons to attract teen customers and win their minds. As a result, insights into the teenagers’ viewing of TVCs are very much important for marketers, brands builders and researchers. The size of the teenaged population is quite large in developing countries (1.6 billion), compared to the developed countries (240 million) (PRB 2016). Furthermore, the teenaged population is the major proportion of most of the developing countries’ total population (Adiko & Adjei, 2016). In Bangladesh, 20.5% of the total Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 211 population falls within the age group of 10-19 years, of which 21.5% lives in urban areas (BBS 2011). Precisely in Dhaka, the total number of teen students is 573,599, which is the largest crowd of total teen population till date (BES 2015) and the majority of them comes from the middle-class family. Though teenagers used to play a limited role in the family buying decision, nowadays they have a much dominating position to choose the brands for them and/or their families with the availability of electronics and digital media. Zaltman, G., Dotlich, D. L., & Cairo, P. C. (2003) revealed in their study that TVCs have significant importance in teenagers’ cognitive development which consists of their minds, brains, bodies, surrounding cultures etc. A brand can’t start its active life cycle without promotional activities like advertisements which carry the best attributes for the target groups. In a developing country like Bangladesh, the general perception is that advertising means television advertisement which is the most powerful paid form of non-personal audiovisual communication tool. Advertisements also help to upgrade consumer socialization process which consists of consumption-related cognition, attitudes, and values through different kinds of entertainment elements like music, information, action and popular celebrity endorsement (Abideen & Saleem, 2011). It has been observed in different research findings of Bangladesh that the television advertisement is the best way to promote products and services in front of millions of consumers which also influences the buying behavior of consumers effectively and efficiently. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, which is one of the most populous cities in the world. People from each and every corner of the country flock to this city. Consequently, Dhaka has become the home of all the different classes of people who make up this country. Residents of this city have the luxury of watching almost all the major TV channels and networks of the world, especially Indian TV channels. This is also a major source of time passing and recreational facility for middle-class urban dwellers. So, research on the influence of TVCs and the buying decisions of the middle-class teenagers of Dhaka metro would be very appropriate and pertinent to meet the needs of the marketers, researchers, business academicians and entrepreneurs. That’s why the research has planned to take teenagers of Dhaka city, aiming to know the influence of television and TV commercials on their buying decisions Research objectives The broad objective of the study is to investigate the influence of Television Commercials (TVCs) in the buying decision of the urban teenagers of Bangladesh. Specific objectives of the research are to explore a) TV and TVC watching pattern, b) reasons of watching TVC, c) popular TVCs, d) influence of TVCs on buying decision, e) information sharing the attitude, and f) influence of models on watching TVCs of the urban teenagers of Bangladesh. 2.0. Literature review The first TVC of the world was aired on July 1, 1941, of a watch manufacturer named Bulova. Bangladesh Television (BTV), which was previously known as Pakistan Television (PTV established on December 25, 1964) started its operation after the liberation of Bangladesh (December 16, 1971). Soon after its inception, BTV (erstwhile PTV) started airing TV commercials. Since then, TVCs have become an integral part of marketing communication to marketers for effective brand building. At present, it is one of to the biggest service industries across the globe for owners of TV stations and brand builders as well. Extract of a pertinent literature review confirms that buying decision mostly depend on buying behavior (Consumer Behavior) of an individual. Where Consumer Behaviour may be defined as the study of individual customers, groups or organizations and how they select, buy, use, and dispose of ideas, goods, and services. Consumer buying behavior also refers to attitudes, preferences, and intentions of an individual while making a buying decision regarding a brand. Lawan, L.A. and Zanna, R. (2013) mentioned two types of factors like internal factors and external factors that affect consumer buying decision. Internal factors are consumer’s own judgment, test, preference, beliefs, lifestyle, personality, buying capacity etc. where external factors are society’s culture such as norms, convention, customs, religion, festivity, class, lifestyle, entertainment vehicle, and another subculture influence etc. According to Ramya, N and Ali, M.S.A., (2016), Buying behavior of consumer is affected by several factors or forces. These factors are broadly classified into four as Psychological Factors, Social Factors, Journal of Business and Retail Management Research (JBRMR), Vol. 13 Issue 4 July 2019 www.jbrmr.com A Journal of the Academy of Business and Retail Management (ABRM) 212 Cultural Factors, Personal Factors, and Economic Factors. Such a decision-making process is classified into three types based on consumer involvement with the buying process which is nominal, limited and extended decision making. Extended decision making involves a higher level of buying involvement comparing to the other two types. These types of buying are infrequent and financial involvement is higher in such a case. That’s why consumers go with the complex buying process. It has been explored that the effect of advertising, particularly television advertising on youth is still one of the researchable topics worth studying (Abbas and Bari 2011, Anjum, Zamin and Bari 2015, Walter and Davie 1998). It is necessary to examine the positive or negative impact of television advertising on the socialization process and consumer buying behavior. Therefore various criticisms regarding the role of advertising in our society have emerged. On the contrary, most of the researchers have given their positive consensus regarding advertising; especially television advertising and its impact based on their research work. Many researchers are skeptic whether TVCs have a positive impact on teenagers’ religiosity aspects. As per the study of Barve, G., Sood, A., Nithya, S. &Virmani, T (2015); media advertising, has never played a more crucial role in a teenager’s socio-economic development and well-being. They also mentioned that children lack the experience and knowledge to understand and critically eva