Impact of diaper television advertisements on consumer purchasing behavior in Kisumu city, Kenya.

Advertising is a form of communication and a marketing strategy that marketers can use to make their products known. There are various marketing strategies and communication media today but not all of them are effective, with some even being at risk of being counterproductive. Marketers are always looking for effective communication media and ways of making their marketing strategies effective. This study analyses the impact of baby diaper television advertising on consumer purchasing behavior. The overall objective of the study is to determine the impact of advertising on consumer purchasing behavior and to find out how effective TV is in influencing this behavior. Specific objectives are to find out the relationship between consumer awareness through advertisements and their buying behavior and to investigate the preferred communication media as a source of information by baby diaper consumers vis-à-vis TV. The study is guided by Leon Festinger’s (1989) cognitive dissonance theory which states that we are possessed with a powerful drive to maintain cognitive steadiness and reliability which may sometimes become irrational. The theory is supported by a model illustrating how consumer purchasing behavior is related to advertising where the dependent variable is consumer purchasing behavior and the independent variable is diaper advertisements.The study adopts a descriptive survey design and correlation study design. The study was done in Kisumu City which hosts 5 major supermarkets (Choppies, Tuskys, Uchumi, Nakumatt and Naivas). The target population of the study was 41,883 parents out of which only 384were sampled scientifically. Snowballing was used to administer questionnaires to parents while purposive sampling was used to collect information from supermarkets and TV. Data was collected through questionnaires administered to parents, interviews in the supermarkets, and observation on Citizen TV to find out diaper brands advertised and the frequency of each brand advertised. The quantitative variable was analyzed by descriptive statistics of mean standard deviation. For categorical closed ended variables, cross tabulations of frequencies was generated for examination of relationships within the data. Open ended qualitative variables were analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. Data presentation is in tables, charts, graphs, themes and sub themes. The results show that consumer purchasing behavior is much dependant on advertisements. Also, the study revealed that TV is the most preferred medium of communication. The findings of this research can help marketers to decide whether or not to advertise their products and also when contemplating on which communication media to use