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Research Article

Effect of television adverts on children’s purchase behaviour: Evidence from Ghana

ORCID Icon, , & | (Reviewing editor)
Article: 1614740 | Received 21 Jan 2019, Accepted 25 Apr 2019, Published online: 17 May 2019

Abstract

The study assessed the effect of television advertising on children’s purchasing behaviour in Ghana. The population comprised of children between the ages of 13 and 18 years who watched television adverts. The study was conducted on a sample of 230 respondents of which 202 responses, representing 87.83% response rate were received and useable. Data were collected using questionnaire. Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were adopted in selecting respondents. The data were analyzed using IBM Statistical Packages for Social Sciences with the use of multiple linear regressions. The study found quality information, information intrusiveness and likable adverts having positive and significant impacts on children purchase behaviour. The study recommends provision of quality, accurate, reliable, and timely information about products as well as employing popular and likable celebrities in the television advertisement.

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Even though marketers are shifting attention from advertising to other promotional elements, advertising still remains very important in influencing the purchasing behaviour of customers. In this study, we sought to find out how advertising and TV adverts in particular influences the behaviour of children. The study used children between the ages of 13 and 18 years who watched television adverts as the respondents. The overall results of the study indicated that television advertising actually influences positively the purchase behaviour of children. Thus, we recommend the provision of quality, accurate, reliable, and timely information about products as well as employing popular and likable celebrities in television advertisements targeted at children.

1. Introduction

Advertising plays an important role as one of the marketing tools companies use to persuade and draw attention of consumers about the existence of their offerings. One cannot ignore the important role of advertising in delivery of news and vital product information for consumer which enhances their purchasing decisions (Xiong & Bharadwaj, Citation2013). Businesses must therefore take their advertising strategies seriously since the business environment has become so competitive (Bardi, Citation2010). Firms are now facing fear of competition, hence designing catching and interesting message is the surest way to influence consumer buying behaviour. Consumers have various levels of decoding advertising messages. Children are important customers that must be taking seriously if firms want to increase market share. It is important to note that children themselves do not have the purchasing power but influence their parents or guardian to buy things they need. The Ghanaian Media Landscape has witnessed tremendous improvement in terms of promoting products through advertisement. The radio, television, the fliers among others are the various ways businesses advertised their products to customers.

Most of the purchase decisions by children are as a result of celebrities who endorsed the products as children most often than learn from models. Celebrity endorsement portrays means through which social actors such as celebrities tend to endorse a particular product through advertisement (Udo & Stella, Citation2015). It’s worth knowing that marketers in Ghana these days use celebrity endorsement as an advertising strategy to influence consumer buying decision. Some studies show that children nowadays are seen as consumer-buyers as they have been involved in consumer socialization role and learn to behave like consumers. Children take everything at face value and believe without a doubt the messages in the advertisement. Children’s attention level on viewing television advertisement can often lead to children’s product request, and children force parents to buy unnecessary items after seeing advertisements.

Some authors believed that children as matter of fact do not understand when marketers advertise products on television (Bartholomew & O’Donohoe, Citation2003). Children are an extremely vulnerable target audience and get easily carried away as they do not always pull towards ads environment that produce feelings essential to change their purchase intentions (Gulla & Purohit, Citation2013). It is therefore difficult for children to really understand that firms just want to push their products in such a way that will entice them to buy. One must also not forget the fact that every customer’s aim is to seek satisfaction after purchase decisions are made. Celebrities in advertisement serve a link for those especially who may not be able to properly understand the content of the adverts, features, information intrusiveness among others (Ikpefan, Folashade, Agwu, & Odunaike, Citation2014). Children below the ages 18 in first and second cycle institution were selected, as they were considered to be children by the Children ACT of Ghana. The study therefore assessed consumer perception of advertising using children in Ghana.

2. Literature review

2.1. Television advertising

The concept of advertising has been a significant phenomenon in the business set up. It has invariably been used by marketing gurus to attract customers’ attention for new products in the market. Advertising through television is seen as the most prominent modality for the transmission and reception of video content. Advertising is seen as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotions of idea, goods, or services by an identified sponsor that may with the objective making sales (Kotler, Citation2013). Advertising plays an important role in delivery of news and vital product information for consumer purchasing decisions (Latif & Abideen, Citation2011; Xiong & Bharadwaj, Citation2013). Businesses should know that ineffectiveness of advertising has the potential of inducing negative consumer attitude towards products (Latif & Abideen, Citation2011). Advertising helps to communicate the features and characteristics of product or service in the visual form so that the customer can understand it easily. Some advertisements seek to build a respected corporate identity for a company, product, and brand name or make all familiar to the public (Agwu, Citation2012). Advertising has been such a persuasive and intrusive socio-economic force that neither manufacturer nor consumers can ignore it (Agwu, Citation2012; Bardi, Citation2010). Many consumers recognize not only the negative societal effects of advertising, but also the positive economic impact of the advertising industry (Agwu, Citation2012). Considering the imperativeness of advertising in modern business world and its potential to generate revenue by attraction customers for a company’s product, it is good to look at the various forms of advertising that are mostly use by companies.

Television (TV) has been seen as having superior merit over the other media as is been perceived as a mixture of audio and video features; it provides products with instant validity and fame and offers the greatest chance for creative advertising (Kavitha, Citation2006). TV advertising not only change emotions but give considerable message exerting a far attainment influence on the daily lives of people (Kotwal, Gupta, & Devi, Citation2008). It can be said that advertising is the driving force responsible for shaping consumers’ perceptions and inducing a behavioural response (Jones & Czerniewicz, Citation2010). Bisht (Citation2013) found advertisement to aspire and helps customer to take conscious product and brand decisions and TV advertisement impact the youth purchase decision.

Perception ranges from quality of information, perceived intrusiveness, entertaining celebrity association, perceived content credibility among others (Akaka & Alden, Citation2010).

Quality of information contained a television advertisement may affect the perception of consumers towards the company and its products/services. The information provided through advertising must be quality in nature, accurate, timely, and useful for the user. Information should be accessible and available to consumers as and when they need it in order to make decision on what they want to buy to satisfy their needs (Siau & Shen, Citation2003). The main aim of advertising is to be able to properly inform consumers. Information tailored to consumers need and interest is very crucial to getting the attention of consumers for a product on offer (Dutta-Bergman, Citation2006). A typical case is the need for television advertising to communicate messages that correspond to the needs of the information users. Haghirian and Inoue (2006) believed that information and credibility associated with advertising, it can have the highest effect on the attitude of consumers. Thus sellers should do more on features of advertising to improve helpful advertising attitude. The study therefore hypothesized that:

H1: Perceived quality of information through TV advertisement positively and significantly affect children to pester parent for purchases

Intrusiveness in one of the major criticisms levelled against advertisement. Despite the fact that all forms of advertising are perceived as intrusive, pop-up advertising is seen to be more intrusive and obstructive. Psychological reaction to adverts interfere with a consumer’s ongoing cognitive processes (Li, Edwards, & Lee, Citation2002). However, research shows that perceived intrusiveness is postulated to be a direct originator of advert annoyance and evasion, which lead to undesirable attitudes towards advertising (Edwards, Li, & Lee, Citation2002). Again advertisers sometimes argue that advertisement in nature is not a cause of interference. In view of that, Dutta-Bergman (Citation2006) posits that the main point of advertising depends on its capacity to educate users. Conversely, advertisement is regarded as intrusive if the individual thinks the demonstration of the advert interferes with his objectives (Edwards et al., Citation2002). The study therefore hypothesized that:

H2: Perceived intrusiveness of information through TV advertisement positively and significantly affect children to pester parent for purchases

A study conducted by Bartholomew and O’Donohoe (Citation2003) on 10–12-year-old kids showed children enjoying and imitating catchphrases and jingles for brands such as Budweiser. Children, therefore have been seen to draw upon advertising for enjoyment and entertainment. One attribute of advertising, especially television advertising is entertainment. Ogba and Johnson (Citation2010) claimed that, marketers purposely target more at children than parents when designing the package of the product as they are maintaining children´s interest to influence parents’ buyer behaviour. "Pester Power" has been desctibed as a child-parent game, where natural interaction takes place. This engenders greater understanding in the parent-child relationship, and involves a positive process, where it is necessary to understand a complex process of a child’s behaviour, using various tactics with the goal of causing the desired feelings in a child. The need of children pester power coping arises, as the modern concepts of buying goods (shopping trips) give leisure and entertainment value to the whole family (Wanninayake & Chovancová, Citation2012). When viewers feel that there is some sort of enjoyment attributed with the advertising, they feel attracted to it and this can enhance their attitude towards the product being advertised. For example, some television ads provide some level of interaction and entertainment for the audience. In television advertisement, entertainment is extremely vital. Studies on internet advertising suggest that celebrities associated with online advertising can add value to product thereby improving customer loyalty (Effah, Citation2016). It is an obvious fact that naturally people are playful and therefore games and prizes through the television may attract them to participate. Based on the above analysis, it can be concluded that advertising that is seen as highly entertaining is perceive more positively by users. Thus, providing entertainment with television advertising can prove to be a successful way of attracting and keeping customers.

H3: Celebrity Association through TV advertisement positively and significantly affect children to pester parent for purchases

Younger children are more confident about the TV advertised product while older children tend to rely on the quality of the advertised product (Chan, Citation2003). This shows that older children are quite skeptic about the credibility and truthfulness of the advertisements which does not allow them to develop a positive attitude towards advertisements. Advertising credibility as predictability and fulfilment of implicit and explicit requirements of an agreement (Pavlou & Stewart, Citation2000). Credibility of an advertisement is influenced by different issues, more especially by the company’s credibility and the bearer of the message (Lafferty, Goldsmith, & Newell, Citation2002). Credibility has been the subject of long discussion, as advertising is normally criticized for the eroding credibility, manipulation and promotion of materialism. The study therefore hypothesized that

H4: Perceived credibility of information through TV advertisement positively and significantly affect children to pester parent for purchases

Attitude of children towards TV advertisements depends on the extent to which a child likes TV advertising and views it favourably or unfavourably. In the literature, it has been noted that children have a liking towards TV advertisements due to the animated characters which engages children’s attention (Gulla & Purohit, Citation2013). Some researchers have found that children’s liking for TV advertisements have resulted into strong recall and high levels of recognition for adult targeted advertisements. Children’s liking or dislike also depends upon the nature of the product being advertised. Children have been found to like advertisements for Fast Moving Consumer Good (FMCG) products and Toys because not only are these advertisements interesting but also children like the products (Chan, Citation2003). The study therefore hypothesized that

H5: Likability of TV advertisement positively and significantly affect children to pester parent for purchases

3. Consumer buying behaviour

Consumer behaviour is seen as the processes individuals adopt to choose products and services in order to satisfy their needs and also the influences that these processes have on the consumer and the whole society (Scott & Walker, Citation2010). Consumer behaviour attempts to understand the buyer decision-making process, both individually and in groups. Consumer behaviour is the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and the processes they use to select, secure, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs and the affect that these processes have on the consumer and society (Kuester, Homburg, & Hess, Citation2012). Predicting consumer behaviour is one of the deadliest tasks for any business as it keeps on altering under the influences of unknown and doubtful factors; therefore, leading to a purchase decision which is difficult to measure under diverse conditions (Rizwan, & Qayyum, (2014). Consumer buying behaviour involves the study of individuals and the method they employ to choose, utilize, and set out products and services to fulfil their wants and the effect these methods have on the consumer and society as a whole. It includes all the thoughts, feelings and actions that an individual has or takes before or while buying a product, service or idea as well as answers to such questions as what, why, how, when, and where an individual makes purchase (Khaniwale, Citation2015).

Several factors that shape consumer’s way of life are taken into consideration before they make a purchase of product on offer. Consumers’ personal characteristics are those things which are directly related to the consumer’s way of life. Those are attributes that can distinguish the consumer as an individual from all other consumers. Personal characteristics include personality variables such as occupation, education level, areas of residence, and status. The components of self or personal concept include physical, psychological, and social attributes (Souiden & Diagne, Citation2009). Within the realm of consumer behaviour, research indicates that religious affiliations and religiosity level influence decision-making and purchasing behaviour (Taylor, Halstead, & Haynes, Citation2010). In terms of family interaction, parents and children influence each other (Al-Zu’bi, Crowther, & Worsdale, Citation2008). Thus, the understanding of culture and the differences is considered a prerequisite for successful advertising (Moriarty et al., Citation2014; Muk, Citation2007).

Children’s role in the family buying decision-making process varies according to the different product categories and buying decision-making stages. In the marketing and consumer behaviour fields, the family received the biggest attention as a primary and powerful decision-making unit (Chaudhury, 2013). Children’s degrees of influence on what they purchase are affected by nature of less expensive to the most expensive product (Ahamad & Sekhar, Citation2014). Children act in three different ways in the market by spending their money directly, influencing other members of the family and finally by being the future market (Ali & Batra, Citation2011). Gulla and Purohit (Citation2013) found that advertisements on television have significant impact upon the attitude of teenagers towards TV commercials. It is therefore important to note that children may not have the money to make purchase decisions, however, they exert enormous influence on their parent to buy products for them.

In any case, the marketing in Western countries began to focus on children mainly in the 1960s (Marshall, Citation2010). However, it was not always the case when, for instance, advertisements for child toys were designed to fit adult TV viewers, not children (Gross, Citation2010). It does not mean that children in that era did not influence the purchase behaviour of their parents, rather, marketers discover the marketing value of children. This knowledge was displayed in massive marketing pressure, using children and youth, on consumer behaviour in households. Cradle-to-grave marketing is therefore highly spread because marketers are aware that the sooner the child is “caught into their nest,” the sooner they start to raise their future loyal customer (Šramová, Citation2014).

Children pestering of parent to purchase a product is also as a result of their cognitive development in terms of their understanding of advertisement even though there has been major criticisms (Roland-Lévy, Citation2010).

4. Methodology

The study adopted quantitative method by collecting quantitative data using questionnaires with explanatory research design. In defining the population of this study, people who are below age 18 were selected, as they are considered to be children by the Children ACT of Ghana. But for the purpose of getting the most valuable information for the study, focus was on children between the ages of 13 and 18 years. It is also assumed that children between these ages will be in junior high school and senior high school categories who may in a way be able to have quite fruitful discussion on adverts. A sample of 250 was selected for the study. This selection was based on the assumption that if a population of a study is of homogeneous characteristics, then a sample of 30 members is good enough to be representative of the population (Stutely, Citation2003). Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were adopted in selecting respondents. IBM Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 software was used to run the analysis. Interpretation was done by means of Ordinary Least Square regression and correlation. Cronbach alpha coefficient was also used to check internal consistency among the variables. In measuring television advertisement, quality of information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility, and likability of advertisement were used as independent variables while consumer purchase behaviour was used as the dependent variable.

4.1. Reliability of the study

Checking for the scale or reliability is very important especially in a quantitative study. The reliability of a scale or variables is basically defined to mean, the internal consistency of the variables used to measure the independent and dependent variables. Thus, the extent to which the variables used hung together to measure the same construct. Over the years, researchers have utilized varying degree of measuring tools to check the reliability of variables used in studies. These tools include Split-half, Guttman, Parallel, and Cronbach alpha. In this study, the study used Cronbach alpha which is a widely used tool for checking the internal consistency of the variables in a research in order to grant the study the degree of reliability. In order to get the best result by using Cronbach alpha some principles which need to be observed. Cronbach alpha coefficient should be above 0.7 (DeVellis, Citation2016). Cronbach alpha values above 0.7 are acceptable and values that are above 0.8 are preferable. In this study, the reliability test run showed a Cronbach alpha of .745, .706, .892, .721, .812, and 0.760 were realized for quality information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility, likability of advertisement, and purchase behaviour respectively. Cronbach alpha reliability statistics is presented in Table in the appendix.

Table 1. Reliability using Cronbach alpha

4.2. Correlation matrix

The Pearson correlation was also run to test the relationship that existed between the variables used in the study and helped the study to assess if there is a multicolloneality among the variables. In quantitative research the concept of correlation is one of the techniques invariably used to assess whether there is a relationship between two or more variables. Statisticians have developed and used statistical tools which enable them to make statistical analyses about the relationship between variables. In order to check whether the strength of the relationship between the variables will affect further statistical analysis; a multicollinearity test was performed using the correlation statistics. For the method to be robust, it is suggested that the correlation statistics should not exceed 0.7 (Hair, Sarstedt, Hopkins, & Kuppelwieser V, Citation2014; Pallant, Citation2005). The correlation test reveals that, multicollinearity is not a threat to this analysis. The correlation results are show in Table .

Table 2. Correlation matrix

5. Findings and discussion

5.1. Demographic information

In this study the demographic characteristics of respondents include; gender, age, level of education and type of school. The percentage values were used to describe the results. Table presents the summary of the results.

Table 3. Demographic information

From the output above, out of the total responses, a sum of 95 responses representing 47% of the respondents were male children while, 107 of them representing 53% were females. This implies that, more female’s children participated in the study than their male counterparts. This implies that female children are more engaged with television advertisement than male children. This confirms a study that, girl teenagers are more attracted towards TV advertisements featuring celebrities, children or jingles (Dubey & Patel, Citation2004). In terms of ages, respondents were delineated into intervals of 13 − 15 years and16–18 years. These age groups were considered to be children as claim by the Children Act of Ghana and are capable of understanding the content of television advertisement. It is only around or after the age of 12 that we can be more certain that most children have developed a fuller understanding of the purpose or objective of advertising. Out of the total response given, a total of 164 responses which equal 81.2% were between the ages of 13–15 years while the remaining 38 of the respondents denoting 18.8% were between ages 16–18 years. These results explained that, respondents for the study were of younger age hence, the findings are valid to make generalization to children within the Kumasi metropolis. The study presents the educational background of respondents by providing options for children in primary school, junior high school, secondary schools within the Kumasi metropolis. The results show that 6 of the respondents representing 3.0% were in the primary level. This implies that, very few of the respondents were in this level of education per the range given and it is assumed that per the age range given a child would be in either the junior highs school or secondary school. The result for children in the junior high school presents that, 170 of the responses representing 84.2% of the respondents were in the junior high portraying a perfect picture of the age group. The assumption here is that, since most of the children fall between the ages of 13–16 years, they should be in the junior high school by these ages. The results for the secondary school showed that, 26 of the respondents were in the secondary indicating 12.9 %percent of the total responses. The results shown for respondents’ category or type of school present that, 39 of the total responses representing 19.3% response rates were in the government school and 163 of the responses also representing 80.7% were in the private school. Children from private schools participated in the study more than children from private school.

5.2. Effect of television advertising on children purchasing behaviour

In assessing the effect of television advertisement on the children’s purchase behaviour, multiple regression analysis was conducted. Quality of information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility, and likability of advertisement were used as independent variables while consumer purchase behaviour was used as the dependent variable. Table shows the output from the results combining model summary (R and R2), ANOVA (F Statistics) and coefficient statistics from the regression result.

Table 4. Output from regression analysis

The output in the regression represents the multiple regressions to establish the effect of television advertisement on children purchase behaviour. The regressions equation was therefore y = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + b4X4 + b5X5 the values from the output are computed, the equation becomes;

y = 1.213 + .232 (X1) + .152 (X2) + .017 (X3) + .005 (X4) + .196 (X5). From the regression output (model summary), the result shows that there is a moderate relationship between television advertisement and children purchase behaviour within the Kumasi metropolis in the Ashanti region of Ghana with a value of .537a. The R square value indicates that 28.9% (.289) of children purchase behaviour could be accounted for by the nature of Television advertisement. From the ANOVA result, it shows that, the combined effect of quality information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility and the likability of advertisement on children purchase behaviour is statistically significant (F = 15.914; p = .000a). An F-statistics of 4 shows that the model is fit and therefore a value of 15.914 indicate that the model is fit.

6. Discussion

The regression result shows that, the coefficient value for quality information is .232 showing positive relationship between with children purchasing behaviour. This means, all things being equal, when the other independent variables (information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility, and likability of advertisement) are held constant, children purchase behaviour will increase. Quality information is statistically significant and is making a contribution to the prediction of children purchase behaviour with t value of 5.048 and significant at .000. H1 is therefore supported. The findings also confirm a study that suggested that, the main aim of advertising is to be able to properly inform consumers of quality information tailored to consumers need and interest so as to encourage buying behaviour (Dutta-Bergman, Citation2006). The implication is that the quality of information of television advertisement is an important determinant of children purchasing behaviour within the Kumasi metropolis. Thus, children look out for reliable, timely, relevant information about product in television advertisement to make a purchase decision. Children as well may pester their parents to buy product for them when they perceive to have quality information about product been advertised.

With regards to information intrusiveness the regression results show that, it has a positive relationship with children purchase behaviour with a coefficient value of .152. This implies that, when the other independent variables (quality information, celebrity association, content credibility and likability of advertisement) are held constant, children purchase behaviour will increase. Information intrusiveness is statistically significant meaning, it is making a unique contribution to the prediction of children purchase behaviour with t value of 2.618 and significant at .010. H2 is therefore supported. This implies that, information intrusiveness of Television advertisement is important determinant of children purchase behaviour of advertised product. This disapprove the assertion made that, perceived intrusiveness has a negative influence on a person’s experience by interfering with the individual’s privacy and reasoning processes (Cho & Cheon, Citation2005) . Regardless of that, children have found the intrusive nature of television advertisement as educative and informative rather than a source of annoyance and privacy invasion. In view of this, it has been clarified that the main point of advertising depends on its capacity to educate users (Dutta-Bergman, Citation2006). Children as well may pester their parents to buy product for them when they perceive to have information intrusiveness of an adverts

Celebrity association to a product in Television advertisement was assessed and the regression results show that it has positive impact on children purchase behaviour with a coefficient value of .017. This implies that, when the other variables (quality information, information intrusiveness, content credibility, and likability of advertisement) are held constant, children purchase behaviour will increase. Celebrity association is statistically not significant and it’s not making any special contribution to the prediction of children purchase behaviour of advertised products with a t value of .465 and significant at .642. H3 is positive but not significant hence not supported. It is television advertisement; celebrity entertainment is extremely vital. It is believed that information that is concise, precise and hilarious will capture the attention of consumer by using celebrities. Studies on internet advertising suggest that celebrities associated with online advertising can add value to product thereby improving customer loyalty (Effah, Citation2016). The implication is that when celebrities make television adverts about product, children like it because they admire and wants to be the celebrity but, this does not make any huge influence on children purchase intention especially if children are not familiar with the celebrity doing the advert. Children as well may pester their parents to buy product for them if they like celebrities who endorsed certain brands

Content credibility of Television advertisement was assessed and the regression result shows that, it has a positive impact on children purchase behaviour with coefficient value of .005. This shows that if the other variables are held constant (quality information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, and likability of advertisement) are held constant, children purchase behaviour will increase. Content credibility is statistically not significant meaning there is a week relationship content credibility and children purchase behaviour and content credibility is not making any unique contribution to the prediction children purchase behaviour with t value of .112 and significant at .911. H4 is positive but not significant hence not supported. The findings confirm a study that suggests that advertising credibility is critical for the success of advertising (Brackett & Carr, Citation2001). This means that children do not rely on the credibility of the advertisement to make a purchase of the advertised product but based on available money given to them by their parent.

Likability of television advertisement was assessed and the regression result shows that, it has a positive impact on children purchase behaviour with coefficient value of .196. This shows that if the other variables are held constant (quality information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, and content credibility) are held constant, children purchase behaviour will increase. Likability of advertisement is statistically significant and it’s making a unique contribution to the prediction children purchase behaviour with t value of 4.836 and significant at .000. H2 is therefore supported. This means that, children will make the decision to purchase an advertised product when they like the advert. The findings confirm a study that found children to like advertisements for Fast Moving Consumer Goods products and toys because not only these advertisements are interesting but also these products are admired by children (Chan, Citation2003)

In comparing the contribution of each independent variable to the prediction to the dependent variable, the beta values (ignoring the negative sign) are used to see which variable make the strongest contribution to explaining children purchase behaviour. Quality information, information intrusiveness, celebrity association, content credibility, and likability of advertisement have beta values of .314, .166, .029, .007, and .304 respectively. Looking at the values, the biggest beta value is .314, which is quality of information. Children in Ghana are now discerning in evaluating and taking decision in product they purchase. The main aim of advertising is to be able to properly inform consumers (Dutta-Bergman, Citation2006). Hence, if children are properly informed through quality information they will increase purchase for the advertised product. Information is therefore important and valuable incentives in advertisement since users generally react in a positive way to ads that are informative (Varshney & Vetter, Citation2002). This implies that, quality of information is very important (makes the strongest contribution) in determining children purchase behaviour of advertised products within the Kumasi metropolis when the variances in the models are controlled for.

7. Policy implication

It is very important for firms to appreciate the fact that, children of school going age do not have the purchasing power to effect sales. They mostly relied on their parents to buy whatever they desire. Advertisers must therefore integrate their advertising strategies targeted at both parent and children. Product positioning strategies must be at the heart of management to help drives sales. Ghanaian children between the ages of 13 to 18 years are now discerning and not just falling for anything been advertised by businesses. Even though children do not have the purchasing power in terms of cash, they are now concerned about quality of the product been advertised before pestering their parents to buy it for them. Businesses must therefore improve on their product in terms of quality and feature and not just relied on popular celebrities or other deceitful adverts in order to influence buying decision.

8. Conclusion

The study reveals that television advertisement plays an important role in determining children satisfaction, brand preference and buying behaviour. Business organizations have therefore resorted to advertisement as an important marketing strategy to create customer satisfaction, brand preference and to influence consumer buying behaviour. Likewise, consumers have over the years relied on advertisement as an important source of product information, likeness and an influencer for consumer purchase decision process. Television advertisement has therefore become the predominant source of advertisement among the media of advertisement used over the years. Children are more prone to television programs since it has created more source of entertainment for them hence creating a great opportunity for them to encounter varying advertisements daily. Despite this, children do not utilize the information they come across in adverts as purposed by advertisers, leading to a lot of challenges for advertisers. For this reason, firms are becoming cautious about the type of adverts they direct to children in order to attract their attention.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by none.

Notes on contributors

Bylon Abeeku Bamfo

Bylon Abeeku Bamfo is a senior lecturer in the School of Business of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. His research areas include advertising, consumer behaviour, social marketing, entrepreneurship and small business management, among others.

Jerry Jay Kraa

Jerry Jay Kraa is a lecturer at the Christian Service University College in Kumasi, Ghana. His areas of interest as far as research is concerned are digital marketing and e-commerce, marketing strategy, consumer behaviour, social marketing, entrepreneurship and small business management, among others.

Perdita Asabere

Perdita Asabere just completed her Masters degree in Marketing at Department of Marketing and Corporate Strategy of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. She has keen interest in research in the area of consumer behaviour.

Bede Akorige Atarah

Bede Akorige Atarah is a PhD student of the Department of Management, Ca’Foscari University, Venice, Italy. His areas of research include advertising, consumer behaviour, and related areas.

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