Influence of the Prominent Representations of Domestic Products Advertisements in Kass TV on to Kipsigis Consumers in Belgut Sub-County, Kericho, Kenya

Abstract

Marketing and trade advertising are part of our day to day lives. This study, therefore, intended to study television (TV) advertisements. Television advertisements come in both visual and verbal modes of communication. Meaning is achieved by sounds and images, which in turn influence the viewers’ choice. This study sought to investigate how adverts in Kass TV use music, textual and visual images to create meaning and its influence on Kipsigis consumer. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of prominent representations of domestic products advertisements in Kass TV on Kipsigis Consumer in Belgut Sub-county, Kericho, Kenya. This study aimed at analysing the verbal and visual modes of communication in TV advertisements in order to determine their influence on Kipsigis viewers. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The target population for the study was Kass TV viewers in Belgut sub-county because it is among the Kass TV coverage areas and also due to the fact that a wide population in the sub-county is Kipsigis speakers. Simple random sampling was used to identify the subjects. Descriptive research was carried out amongst Kass TV viewers and consumers of the advertised products in Belgut sub-county. The researcher designed a structured questionnaire which was self-administered to the Kass TV viewers and buyers of the advertised domestic products. The research used 186 respondents and related questionnaires were administered to collect data. Data was analysed using content analysis with the use of Frith’s table for the analysis of layers of meanings (surface meaning, advertiser’s intended meaning and cultural meaning) by employing descriptive statistics. The study will hopefully make some contributions to the studies of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA). It also makes consumers be aware of the multiple modes that television advertisement producers use to influence their buying behaviour.