THE IMPACT OF COLOUR PRESENTATION IN MAGAZINE ADVERTISING. A CASE STUDY OF TELL MAGAZINE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION 

• Background of the study

People are exposed to a tremendous amount of commercial or non-commercial information every day. The average person would be exposed to over 1,500 advertising a day, aware of less than 70 of them, and remember only 5 to 10 ads (Kotler, Bowen, & Makens, 2010). This screening-out process can be explained by the concept of selective attention which reduces the load on limited-capacity cognitive systems by filtering irrelevant information from the stimulus stream (Downing, 2000). The consumer’s selective attention implies how hard it is for marketers to successfully hold consumers’ initial attentions through advertising materials. In the marketing and consumer behavior field, many studies suggest the importance of attentions as predictors of consumers’ attitude toward an object or advertisement (e.g., MacKenzie & Lutz, 1989). However, it has been noted that an important limitation of existing research in marketing, consumer behavior and social psychology is that there are relatively less efforts to empirically examine the role of attention in persuasion (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). Psychologists focused on cognitive research have been interested in how what is currently on our minds affects what we currently look at (e.g., Desimone & Duncan, 1995; Sreenivasan, Katz, & Jah, 2007). Recent research on the interactions between visual working memory and visual attention fits in the research question (Oh & Kim, 2004; Soto & Humphreys, 2006). The underlying assumption is that visual attention and visual working memory share important processes as well as content representations. Working memory is defined as the active maintenance of a representation after the stimulus that produced it is no longer present (Downing, 2000). It is generally assumed that working memory and attention appear very similar, in that both dimensions postulate the activation and prioritization of information relevant to the task at hand over information that is currently irrelevant (Olivers, 2009). Understanding color effects on people’s attention and working memory has been an important research area in cognitive psychology. Despite inconclusive arguments across time and settings (Madden, Hewett, & Roth, 2000), there are few general consensus in regard to color effects. First, full color generally holds more attention than black and white (Schaie & Heiss, 1964), and second warm colors (e.g., red) generate more arousal and attention than cool colors (e.g., blue) (Birren, 1978). In addition, it is reported that cool colors elicit greater relaxation and pleasure than warm colors (Jabocs & Seuss, 1975). Additional color and advertising studies suggest that background color effects are qualified by the contrast between the background color and the color of the text or content (Fernandez & Rosen, 2000; Hall & Hanna, 2004; Moore, Stammerjohan, & Coulter, 2005). In contradiction, Popper and Murray (1989) examined the effectiveness of high versus low contrasting background color on the message, but found no significant differences between the contrast conditions. Many researchers have examined the basic link between attention and working memory considering color effect. However, there has been little research endeavor on the issue of attention and memory in the hospitality and tourism industry. It is logically presumed that the constructs would be more important in the field, in that most products and services in the hospitality and tourism are symbolic and image-oriented which requires more attention and memory. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore color effect on people’s visual attention and working memory by employing the images of tourist attractions as stimuli. To achieve the goal, the computerized experiment manipulated memory load in a primary task and measured its attention cost on a secondary task across sequential positions. More specifically, this study examines how different colors affect people’s attentions and memory by requiring participants to do a dual task (i.e., box shooting and seeing different types of photos).

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

With the realization of the importance of attention in decision-making process in consumer behavior, advertisers and marketers devote considerable time and effort to designing attention-getting appeals. Many scholars examining consumer behavior from an information-processing perspective argue that the attention step in message processing controls a substantial portion of the variability in consumer decisions (e.g., Bettman, 1979). Attention has been explored extensively by cognitive psychologist, and if broadly defined to include people’s perceptual areas such as selective attention, distortion, and retention, it is clear that there is a great deal of relevant social psychological research on these topics. It is in view of the above that the researcher intends to investigate the impact of color presentation in magazine advertising

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to ascertain the impact of color presentation in magazine adverts, to aid the completion of the study the researcher intend to achieve the following objective;

1. To ascertain the impact of color presentation in magazine advertisement
2. To ascertain the relationship between colorization of magazine advert and customers patronage

• To ascertain the role of colorization of magazine in the promotion of organization services

1. To evaluate the effect of colorization of magazine advertisement on sales volume

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were  formulated by the researcher

H₀:  color presentation on magazines does not have any significant impact on advertisement

H₁: color presentation on magazines does have a significant impact on advertisement

H₀: there is no significant relationship between colorization of magazine advert and customer’s patronage

H₂: there is a significant relationship between colorization of magazine advert and customers patronage.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study the findings will be useful to sale promoters in structuring their fliers and coloration of advert booklet to be able to catch the attention of their customers at a glance, the study will also be of importance to marketers, as the quality of advert placement bulletin tends to be of great appeal and quality assurance to the consumers. The study will also be useful to researchers who intend to embark on research in similar topic, Finally the findings of this study will also be immense benefit to government, academia, scholars, researchers and the general public.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers the impact of color presentation in magazine advertising, in the cause of the study, there were some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

1. a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study.
2. b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities        and examinations with the study.
3. c) FINANCE: The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the        researcher has other academic bills to cover

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Color

Color is the characteristic of human visual perception described through color categories, with names such as red, yellow, purple, or blue. This perception of color derives from the stimulation of cone cells in the human eye by electromagnetic radiation in the spectrum of light. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associated with objects through the wavelength of the light that is reflected from them.

Magazine

A magazine is a publication, usually a periodical publication, which is printed or electronically published (sometimes referred to as an online magazine). Magazines are generally published on a regular schedule and contain a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by prepaid subscriptions, or a combination of the three

Advertising

Advertising is an audio or visual form of marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sponsors of advertising are often businesses who wish to promote their products or services.

Sales promotion

Sales promotion is the process of persuading a potential customer to buy the product. Sales promotion is designed to be used as a short-term tactic to boost sales – it is rarely suitable as a method of building long-term customer loyalty. Some sales promotions are aimed at consume.

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows. Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (background of the study), statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope of the study etc. Chapter two being the review of the related literature presents the theoretical framework, conceptual framework and other areas concerning the subject matter.     Chapter three is a research methodology covers deals on the research design and methods adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.

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