An analysis of representations of safaricom and airtel television advertisements

Abstract

The two leading mobile phone companies in Kenya; Safaricom and Airtel periodically present innovative services to attract new clients and retain existing ones. These services are packaged and presented as offers. Some offers target specific segments of consumers such as youth and professionals while others are meant for the general public. Due to the hype in the communication strategies adopted to popularize the new services, they generate considerable interest in the media and among the consumers. The wording and graphic images accompanying these offers in the media, specifically television, may determine their degree of acceptance and uptake rates. The objectives of the study included determining the prominent representations in Safaricom and Airtel advertisements, to establish if the advertisement representations influence customer choices and to evaluate the extent to which the representations reflect the socio- cultural context of Kenya. Theories informing the study were the information processing theory as well as the theory of social semiotics. The study was a case of Safaricom and Airtel companies. The population was sampled using both purposive and multi- cluster sampling methods. Research tools included interviews, questionnaire, in-depth interview, a focus group discussion and content analysis. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively and using the computer aided data analysis program SPSS. Findings of the study confirmed that representations in Safaricom and Airtel advertisements do influence consumer choice as well as reflect the social cultural context of Kenya and thus their success. Recommendations of the study include education of consumers on how to be a more critical audience of consumers so as to be less susceptible to manipulation by misleading advertisements; translation of native and sheng languages used for consumers to understand the message since Kenya has different people of different ethnicity; ensuring information of products also reaches the marginalized communities instead of concentrating it in big town