In an era of mature and intense competitive pressures, effective advertising can broaden the communication channel between customers and institutions which enhances the chance of success. According to Cengiz, Ayyildiz & Er (2007), advertising refers to activities undertaken to increase sales or enhance the image of a service, firm or business, and the primary purpose of advertising is to inform the potential customer of the characteristics of products or services. Dunn (1995) states that adverting plays an important role in attracting customers to the business in the beginning stage, and maintaining customer traffic levels during slow periods. Rust & Zahorik (1996) show similar results where advertising can improve utilization during slow periods as it may offer opportunities to educate customers about businesses’ service characteristics and operation process which can increase productivity from existing technical capacity. Davies (1996) explains that advertising can strength the communication between organizations and customers, and effectively reduces consumers' perceived risks.

 

Furthermore, advertising can affect customers’ behaviour because it can provide information to guide customers’ purchasing decisions. According to Hite & Faster (1988), professional services advertising including can change customers’ attitudes and perceptions toward the service provided. However, Blanchard & Galloway (1994) argue that advertising could produce a sterile image. Effective advertising competition may stimulate switching because customers have been informed about more opportunities for their purchasing choices (Balmer & Stotvig, 1997).

 

1.1問題的陳述—Problem Statement

 

A thorough review of the literature on the impact of advertising in the manufacturing industry like the wine makers showed that no studies have been conducted to access the impact of advertising in their industry. Using advertising as a means of communication by these service providers is still a debatable issue (Barchard, 1990). Many researchers have focused on marketing strategies rather than pure advertising. Consequently, there is limited research on the service industry regarding the relationship between consumer switching behaviour and advertising. However, based on previous studies, effective advertising can add value, capture the attentions of the customers, and enhance customers’ loyalty (Cengiz et al., 2007; Hite & Fraster, 1988). Furthermore, professional service advertising is positively associated with customers’ expectation of benefits and guides their purchasing behaviour. This study therefore looks at the effect of advertising on customer attitude to Kalahari bitters of Kasapreko Company limited

 

1.2此項研究的目的—Objectives of the Study

 

The primary objective of this research is to vividly access the effect of advertising on customers’ attitude to Kalahari bitters.

 

Specifically, the objectives of the study include:

 

To investigate how advertising add value to the wine industry.

 

To measure the effects of advertising on the company’s products and services.

 

To measure customer response to advertising.

 

1.3研究的問題—Research question

 

The research question to this study is deduced from the objectives of this study;

 

What are the effects of advertising on customer attitude to Kalahari bitters?

 

What value do the wine industries gain from advertising?

 

Does advertising have any effects on the profit level in the wine industries?

 

What is the response to advertising from the public?

 

1.4文獻綜述—Literature review

 

The impact of advertising on firm performance and market structure is very extensive, covering the fields of economics, marketing, management science, and more recently financial economics. An informal treatise in economics dates back to Marshall (1890, 1919) who contrasts advertising’s potential constructive role (informing customers) versus its combative role (stealing customers from competitors without necessarily providing information). In modern economics the constructive role has lead to the informative view according to which advertising creates a more elastic demand by providing information to customers (Ozga, 1960; Stigler, 1961; Demsetz, 1973; and Nelson, 1974, 1975). This pro-competitive interpretation associates increased advertising with increased market entry and lower prices. In contrast, the persuasive view, along the lines of Marshall’s combative role, suggests that advertising is primarily conducted to change consumers’ tastes to advertiser’s advantage (Braithwaite, 1928; Robinson, 1933; Kaldor, 1950; Bain, 1956; and Comanor and Wilson, 1967). In this case, advertising generates a less elastic demand for the product/service by increasing brand loyalty, eventually leading to higher prices. Importantly, under the persuasive view, advertising is anti-competitive and can be used to create entry barriers. Potential entrants may also renege if the initial sunk-advertising costs are important enough to increase entry’s risk. A recent alternative to these theories is the complementary view (Stigler and Becker, 1977; Fisher and McGowan, 1979; Nichols, 1985; Hochman and Luski, 1988; and Becker and Murphy, 1989).

 

According to this view, advertising, an argument of the utility function, does not change or shift consumer tastes, but is ‘consumed’ jointly with the good/service being advertised, and may affect demand even when it has no explicit information content. A consequence of this last view is that managers may under advertise, rather than over-advertise; if they believe they cannot fully internalize its benefits.

 

These alternative views of advertising have been examined under various static and dynamic frameworks, such as the neoclassical, game-theoretical, and dynamic optimization models. For example, advertising can be linked to money-burning models, in which high-efficiency, high-quality, and presumably low-cost producers can signal product quality which the low-efficiency, high-cost producers cannot mimic in a separating equilibrium (Milgrom and Roberts, 1986; and Bagwell and Ramey, 1988). Despite significant advances on the theoretical front, however, the empirical evidence on advertisings’ impact is far from being conclusive (Bagwell, 2001). Extensive inter- and intra-industry studies suggest that advertising-market structure and advertising-profitability links vary considerably across industries and product categories.

 

Raymond (1970) argues that the effectiveness of advertising conveys different meanings to different groups. To a general manager of a wine manufacturer, it would obviously mean the impact the advertising strategy has on the company’s profitability. This background makes it sufficiently on the trend in advertising research. With marketing communication used for creating awareness and building a long lasting relationship, many studies have focused on copy and media effects and awareness building about the product.

 

1.5此項研究的意義—Significance of the study

 

The findings of the research could assist wine manufacturers and other authorities, in policy making decision concerning advertising of products.

 

To serve as a basis for future and further research and study in the area by the other students and researchers.

 

It could help marketing managers to be more proactive, effective and efficient in advertising of their products

 

1.6研究方法論— Research Methodology

 

This chapter explains the research methods that were used to collect data for the study. It focuses on the following areas; site selection and justification, research approach, data collection tools, and the target population.

 

1.6.1數據收集— Data Collection Tools

The data needed for this study was gathered through the use of primary and secondary data sources respectively.

 

The primary data collected involved the administration of questionnaires to obtain first hand responses for answering the research questions. A structured questionnaire will also be distributed to both staffs and management to alleviate their side of view on the research question.

 

The secondary data was gathered from reviewed journals and literature relevant to the subject matter of this research. Newspapers and official documents of harbour authority are used. The electronic site: www.google.com is also employed.

 

1.6.2目標人群— Target population

The sampling frame for the study would be staffs as well as customers or clients of Kasapreko. In spite of the divisional work structure, the staffs used for the study would selected in two major categories, the main office or the administrative staff or unit and the field staff, thus those involved in the field work or outdoor works of Kasapreko.

 

1.6.3樣本量—Sample size

A sample size of 50 participants was selected as the sample size for the study. From this sample size, 35 of the response will come from the customers and 15 will come from staffs of the company.

 

1.6.4取樣—Sampling Technique

A random sampling technique would be used to obtain the needed data from the 50 staff used as the sample size. The technique involved obtaining responses within the sample frame from the willing respondents. The advantage in using this technique was that the respondents participated on their own accord and were not selected against their volition for the research. The technique was also used to boost the response rate because respondents were willing and available. The time constraint and the mobile nature of some section of the staff population was also reasons for the choice of this sampling technique as any other could pose some problems of responses or non respondents.

 

1.6.5數據分析—Data Analysis

The Statistical Package for Social Science research (SPSS) 16 and Microsoft Excel were used to analyze the data.

 

1.7挑戰和限制因素—Challenges and limitations

 

All research studies have limitations and finite scope. Some of the limitations of this team include the following:

 

Difficulties in gathering information which were very crucial for generating the needed results which may also limit the level of credibility of the findings.

 

Prompt attention was not also given to the answering of the questionnaires as researchers were working within a specified time frame. This contributed to the late collection of the answered questionnaire, hence resulting in a slight delay of the work.

 

Financial constraints also limited the researchers’ efforts.

 

1.8此項研究的組織機構—Organization of the Study

 

Chapter one: This will cover the background study of the research and give details of how the research will be conducted. There will also be a problem statement, objective, significance and methodology of the study.

 

Chapter two: This will cover the literature on the effect of advertising on customers attitude on Kalahari bitters. These will be gathered from texts, articles, journals and reports.

 

Chapter three:  This will give details of the methodology. It will explain how the research will be conducted, the population and sample size to be used and the data gathering instruments.

 

Chapter four:  This will explain how the data gathered from the study will be analyzed and the presentation of findings.

 

Chapter five:  This chapter will cover the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. This is ended with the references and institutional sources of data.