1.1 Introduction
Photography are widely used in the communication of destinations (Pritchard and Morgan 2001) and also through social media to communicate their brand and create an image (Pritchard and Morgan 2001; Choi et al. 2007). Generally, destinations' official social media publish highly aesthetic photos displaying the main tourist attractions of the place, but not so much the emotional values of the brand (Michaelidou et al. 2013). They tend to offer a distant, impersonal (Datta 2012), yet beautiful and attractive vision of the destinations.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitation of the study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Advertising as a discrete term is generally agreed to have begun with newspapers in the seventeenth century. This included line or classified advertising. Simple descriptions plus prices of products sewed their purposes until the late nineteenth century, when technological advances meant that illustrations could be added to advertising and colour was also an option. As a result of the on-going market revolution, advertising has experienced a tremendous growth as hardly exists anything that advertising has not been equated with.
The persuasive power of advertising in the electronic age transcends cultural boundaries, especially with the use of carefully selected words and images that will elicit the attention, interest and desire of potential consumers in the advertising campaign. With the introduction of photography in advertising, advertising grew massively. This led to increased dependence of modem business on advertising to sell their products and images to the public. There are other instances when the persuasive influence of advertisements may be considered more important than it's attendant value. There are also instances where photographs do not add or increase the attention of the copy.
Against all odds, Photography is an effective communication tool in advertisement.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effectiveness of Photography as a Communication Tool in Advertising.
1.3 Statement of Problem
In Nigeria, advertising has transcended technologies and cultural barriers to encourage people to patronize a product. Advertising became a vital tool for creating mass awareness, conveying information and education about the existence of goods and services in the market. A well detained and planned advertisement which aided with pictures and illustrations will help the potential buyers of a product to know more about the existence of a particular goods and services as often said by media historians “A picture is worth more than a thousand words”.
In advertisement, because of the need to communicate quickly, unambiguously and economically the issues of which medium are effective vis-à-vis channel of carrying out the advertisement message nears its head. Is it going to be bill boards, posters, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, television or radio? After having successfully classified the different type of advertising target audience (e.g. consumer, industrial) by geographically (local, international) by it's functions or purpose (product advertising, non commercial advertising), the next important thing is to classify by the medium (radio, television, magazines). The type of medium and channel that would not be used for the advertisement can affect the effectiveness or not of the advertisement message.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to examine the effectiveness of photography as a communication tool in advertising which will provide an insight into the challenges that might act as a threat or opportunities to the marketing of goods and services in a highly volatile environment such as Nigeria. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To investigate the importance of photography as a communication tool in advertising in an organization.
- To examine critically the likely problems that can be faced by an organization as a result of improper knowledge of advertising management.
- To know when and how the photography tool in advertising should be relayed to the target market, and how much to be allocated into advertising programme.
- To examine type of media to be used in order to relay the advertisement message to the target market.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Do people know about the existence of goods and services through advertising?
- Are most advertisement accompanies with photography or illustrations?
- How effective can a photography be in the advertisement of new and existing products?
- What influences the use of photography advertisements?
- What can strategic placed illustrations do to a product, and in which medium do we prefer advertisement?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: The effectiveness of photography as a communication tool does not guarantee a good advertisement.
- H1: The effectiveness of photography as a communication tool guarantees a good advertisement.
Hypothesis Two
- H0: The use of photography is insignificant to advertising message acceptance.
- H1: The use of photography is significant to advertising message acceptance.
1.7 Significance of Study
This study on the effectiveness of photography as a communication tool in advertising when completed will be useful to both the advertiser, their agent (Advertising Agency) and the consumer (buyers).
The advertisers will learn from the findings of this study, how a careful blend of pictures (illustrations and image) and words (written or spoken) can increase audience awareness of a product.
The Advertising Agency, on the other hand will also benefit form this study, it will help enhance the quality of adverts, through careful selection of images and words that will elicit audience interest and patronage.
Finally, the consumers will benefit from this study through the availability of persuasive adverts on products that satisfy their physical and emotional needs.
1.8 Scope of Study
This study is designed to determine the effectiveness of photography as a communication tool in advertising. It seeks to ascertain the impact of photography on advertising and how ‘it influences buying behavior of consumers.
1.9 Limitations of the study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.10 Definition of Terms
Conceptual Definition: According to the website's definition of the English Language
Advertising: The attracting of public attention to a product, service especially by means of paid announcements, broadcasts or printed materials.
Competition: The act of competing mutual contest or striving for the same object.
Photography: This is the act or process of obtaining accurate representation of objects by means of chemical action of light or other kinds of radiant energy on specially treated surfaces.
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