Consumer Attitudes Towards Advertising: an Empirical Study of the Middle Class in Nairobi

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the attitude held by consumers towards advertising and its relative importance as a source of consumer information. The significance of such a study lies in realising the link between attitudes and behaviour. A negative attitude, for example, will be taken to imply a possible negative action tendency and vice versa. In this case this means the efficacy of advertising to achieve the goal of convincing consumers to make a purchase hinges on the opinion the audience has on advertising as a source of consumer information in the first place. Owing partly to time and financial constraints, but mainly to unavailability of adequate consumer sampling frame, this survey study was carried out on the middle class consumers in Nairobi. Primary data was collected via a self-adminstered questionnaire delivered by 'drop and pick' method. Analysis of the data revealed that the aspects of advertising investigated drew a mixed reception- some eliciting positive and others negative attitudes. However when the attitude toward advertising in general is measured, a simple majority of 53.3 % of those surveyed were found to be negatively predisposed towards advertising. As for its relative importance as a source of consumer information, advertising came second to experiential and personal sources of information. Salesmen were rated lowest in terms of importance. The findings of this study should however be interpretated with due consideration to the limitations of the study, principally the fact that it is narrowly based on the middle class consumers in Nairobi beyond which the findings should not be generalized.