TOWARDS EFFECTIVENESS OF ADVERTISING RECALL ON BRAND PREFERENCE IN GHANAIAN TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES. Yaw Odame Gyau1 Faculty of Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Ghana Institute of Journalism ABSTRACT Advertising recall is one of the categories of measures of the cognitive response which have been developed. What remains a dilemma to advertisers is whether there is a correlation between recall of advertising and brand preference or not? This study sought to determine the relationship between advertising recall and brand preference among young communication students in Accra. Expectancy Value Theory and Media System Dependency Theory were used. The study adopted simple random sampling procedure to respond to two propositions: 1. That there is no relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service; 2. That there is no relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. Findings indicate that relationship between advertising recall and brand preference is significant. Majority of the respondents also emphasized that, in the future, their next choice of brand will be based on ‘efficiency of service'. Keywords: Advertising Recall, Brand Preference, Television Commercials (TVCs), Retrieval Cues and Advertising Effectiveness. 1 Mr Yaw Odame Gyau is senior lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Journalism, he holds an MPhil Education degree from Open University, Malaysia, and currently a PHD Candidate at the same university. He also holds a Master of Arts degree in Advertising from the University College Kensington, London and a BA in Graphic Design from KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana. Page 52 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 INTRODUCTION Advertising and promotion efforts in Corporate-Ghana are quite strategic and directed towards consumers for spontaneous or otherwise, delayed response. In recent times, the business environment in Ghana has realized a competitive inclination to advertising and promotion strategies among four telecommunication companies namely, MTN, TIGO, VODAFONE and AIRTEL. Among other factors, these telecommunication companies, supposedly, advertise with the aim to establish their unique brands. A brand has been considered as one of the most powerful assets that a company has. (Aaker, 1997). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of advertising claims and brand preference among the most active users in the ever dynamic and competitive telecommunication industry in Ghana. More specifically, this study sought, among others, to investigate whether advertising claims recalled by consumers elicit consumer brand preference or not, and to determine the relationship between recalled brands and purchase of Telecom services among the most active users. The study also sought to examine the thoughts and feelings that consumers associate with recalled brands and TVCs and the conceptual implication for Advertising Recall (AR), Brand Preference (BP), and Product Purchase (PP). While the literature may be replete with studies on advertising recall, most of these studies have been based on societies other than Ghana. Meanwhile, advancement in and indispensability of internet-driven applications and products makes telecommunication networks critical to the Ghanaian society. Consequently, the research questions this study seeks to address are as follows: What is the correlation between advertising recall and consumer brand preference? What is the relationship between recalled brands and purchase of Telecom services among active users? How does the thoughts and feelings of consumers resonate with TVCs after watching? How does consumer recall of TV adverts influence brand salience? MEMORY INTERPLAY IN ADVERTISING Memory means retrieving a past experience (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006) and the ability to recall is aided by good memory. Meanwhile, memory strength regarding advertising recall is also dependent on ‘retrieval cues’, Page 53 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 which enable consumers to remember key issues in the advert. ‘The relevance of this to advertising is that advertisers want their brand to be cued into the minds of consumers when they think of making a purchase from that product category’ (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006). Considering this assertion by Sutherland and Sylvester, then it can be argued that there must be a correlation between advertising and purchase decisions, at least in the same product category. Memory plays a key role in the behaviour of a critical consumer and how that behaviour is influenced by advertising. Memory means retrieving a past experience (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006) and the ability to recall is aided by good memory. It is the ability of one’s mind to encode, store and recall information. Our memories are triggered by retrieval cues (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006). Retrieval cues enable consumers to remember other things. For example, if one is trying to recall somebody’s name, and the name would not come to mind instantly, the individual is likely to resort to some features or attributes associated with the person to help retrieve the name. Consumers usually do not choose brands at the time of advertising exposure; rather, it is the memory of the advertising messages that influence consumers (Mehta and Purvis, 2006). This phenomenon, amazingly, is also true in advertising and brand recall among consumers. Consumers by association have learned that adverts must present attractive, persuasive, glamorous and intriguing elements for effective communication to take place. As they connect to such elements in the ad, they take note of the elements that appeal to them and then memorize them. Such elements may include jingles, attractive models, celebrities, colour schemes, and messages. That is the more reason why presentation of advertising messages, regardless of the style, must possess retrieval cues (elements) that are capable of helping consumers to memorize advertising messages and related brands. Advertisers must, therefore, ensure that they expose consumers to ads with strong retrieval cues that can help them tie the brand to the advertisement. Page 54 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 RECALL AND RECOGNITION Advertising recall is one of categories of measures of the cognitive response which have been developed (Lambin, 2007). Recall can be one of the techniques that require the mind to search for traces of awareness of a brand or an advert (du Plessis, 2005). Recognizing something involves linking the fragments we have seen together, linking them by associative strengths into a coherent representation in our minds (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006). The same pattern of connectivity in the brain is stimulated in different ways by different prompts. If the prompt material is ‘rich’, and triggers lots of neural activity, the output (memory triggered) is also likely to be rich (du Plessis, 2005). The ability of a consumer to recall a brand can affect his or her brand preference. A stingy or indirect way of remembering a brand will produce little output (du Plessis, 2005). You cannot remember an experience unless you first create a record of it (learning), and you cannot learn from this experience unless you retain this record (memory), (Lieberman, 2012). Sutherland and Sylvester (2006) reinforce Lieberman’s assertion by emphasising that “connections are like muscles, when they are exercised they get stronger, when they are not exercised, they become weaker”. The simplest level of cognitive response is the knowledge of the existent of a product or a brand (Lambin, 2007). Brand Awareness is the ability of a potential buyer to recognize the brand with sufficient detail to propose, recommend, choose or use the brand to meet the need of a certain product category (Lambin, 2007). According to Lambin (2007), two types of brand awareness can be distinguished and they are; Brand recognition: a minimal level of awareness, which will be particularly important at the point of purchase when choosing a brand; Brand recall: a much more demanding test; Top Of the Mind Awareness (TOMA): refers to the first named brand in a recall test. The brand is ahead of all the other competing brands in a person’s mind. Testing an individual to know whether he or she has an idea about an advert could be done by applying four types of recall test. They are Aided Advertising Recall, Aided Brand Recall, Unaided Advertising Recall and Unaided Brand Recall. Aided advertising recall is one’s ability to remember an advert with the help of a cue about the media vehicle involved (Sharma and Singh, Page 55 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2011). A set of brand names from a given product class are presented to respondents, who are asked to note the ads they have heard of before (Lambin, 2007). Unaided advertising recall is one’s ability to remember an advert without the help of a cue; rather just the name of the product will be provided (Sharma and Singh, 2011). According to Lambin (2007), it is the case where the respondent is questioned about a brand without reference to any brand. This study adopted the Aided Advertising Recall and the Aided Brand Recall to test the recall level of its respondents based on the elements and constructs emanating from the TVCs of the Telecom companies under study. BEHAVIOURISM AS LEARNING THEORY. In the late 19th century, American psychologists studied behaviour after recognizing that there was apparently no appropriate method to study human mental processes (Tomic, 1993). Alluding from Tomic, Behaviourism is a learning theory that only focuses on behaviours that are observed objectively and its connection with mental processes. Behaviourism was a matter of concern to this study because from the extant literature, previous studies have not provided a comprehensive look at the role of behaviour and effects that TVCs tend to have on consumers. Therefore, the experiment of Messarris (1997) was of essence to this study because Messaris attempted to test the behavioural disposition of some per-adolescents and the subsequent chain of displacement of emotions that formed part of his assumptions. According to Tomic (1993), behaviourist believe that unlike mental processes, behaviour is observable, and that research should focus exclusively on observable behaviour and not the unobserved phenomena of consciousness. One type of conditioning (learning) is classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two stimuli, thus, to anticipate events. MEMORY AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR. Memory is a critical part of consumer behaviour and how advertising influences consumer behaviour (Mehta & Purvis, 2006). “Memory is the process of maintaining information over time” (Matlin, 2005). Retrieval of Page 56 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 past experience involves a process of pattern completion, in which a subset of the features comprising the particular past experience are reactivated, and activation spreads to the rest of the constituent features of that experience (Sutherland & Sylvester, 2006). Paying attention involves the use of all sensory receptors including the mind (Quincy, 2014). Information in the sensory register that does not get a person’s attention typically disappears from the memory system (Ormrod, 2009). Without memory, we cannot learn anything. Hebb (1949) proposed that there are two types of memory: Short-term memory (STM) and Long-term memory (LTM). Retrieving information from long-term memory basically involves going down memory lane and following a pathway of associations. The bits and pieces of a memory are distributed throughout different parts of the brain (Sutherland & Sylvester, 2006). What binds them together into a coherent memory is their connections and associative strength of those connections. Raaijmakers and Shiffrin s (1981) model of memory, for example, assumes that the creation of a memory record depends on the formation of associations between the elements of a scene and that subsequent retrieval of this record depends on retrieval cues activating some of these elements, with this activation then spreading to the other elements (Lieberman, 2012). It is based on this phenomenon that this study also sorts to determine how young tertiary communication students, through TVCs, are able to connec stimulus and the strength of connection between stimulus based on t e elements portrayed in the TVCs of Telecom companies. So that, i t e subsequent retrieval of some records arises through retrieval cues, then, it is imperative for memory to be induced with attractive elements in TV s. LITERATURE REVIEW According to Media Dynamics Inc., (2006), the advertising environment is becoming increasingly cluttered. However, an advertisement needs to cu through the clutter to be noticed by the viewer and therefore be processe in memory. This justifies the need for recognition and recall in several respec s as companies in Ghana, especially the Telecom companies, strive to ave their adverts recognized and recalled. In related studies, recognition an recall of adverts to determine effectiveness of TVCs have been examine . Anderson and Bower (1972) described a model of free recall which Page 57 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 identified 2 processes: (a) retrieval, by which ‘S’ accesses the words; and (b) recognition, by which ‘S’ decides whether an implicitly retrieved word is a to-be-recalled word or not? The authors confirmed the prediction that S’s ability to retrieve the words would increase as more overlapping sublists were studied. Ojenike (2012) studied the influence of advertising to determine consumers’ preference for telecom services offered by telecommunication providers was investigated in a study based on a survey of 250 randomly selected users of telecom services in Lagos and Ibadan towns in South-western Nigeria. Ojenike (2012) discovered that advertising had an equal impact on male and female consumers of various ages in terms of brand choice. Out of the numerous communications businesses evaluated, MTN was preferred by 38.00 percent of the users. Meanwhile, Rishante (2014), in her study, suggested that television advertisement of mobile telecommunication networks had no significant effect on viewers’ preference. However, he claims that there was a substantial effect of age on viewers’ preference for mobile communications network advertisements on television. Owusu and Nyarku (2014) realised in a related study that Tertiary students in the Cape Coast Metropolis consider the prices charged by the telecom operators and the quality of the service delivered by the telecom operators before deciding on which particular network to purchase from. According to Olalekan, Babatunde, and Ishola (2015), advertisements are significant for communications service selection in Nigeria, but they have a limited impact. In addition, the self-service price and service quality of a product are very important factors in deciding which telecommunication services to use in Nigeria. Recent studies in the field have to a large extent treated the role of recognition and recall in advertising effectiveness and brand preference for various industries. However, within the Telecommunication industry in the Ghanaian context, very few studies have been conducted to reflect the moderating role of recognition and recall in brand preference. Moreover, in terms of media used for advertising, literature reviewed indicates a gap which this study seeks to plug in the context of Television advertising. This study, therefore, sought to fill the gap in literature by adding to the body of knowledge in the area of effectiveness of Television advertising recall and brand preference in the Telecommunication industry in Ghana. Page 58 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The study was underpinned by the Expectancy Value Theory (DeFleur’s Uses and Gratification perspective, 2010), Media System Dependency Theory (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur, 1976) and Chain of Displacement of Emotions Theory (Messaris, 1997). Concerning the Expectancy Value Theory, DeFleur (2010) posited that the growing conviction that individuals actively seek out media content that provides them with personal satisfactions of various needs eventually lead to a new explanation. According to Sheath and Tuncalp (1974) and relevant to this study, the theory has certain components which represent a person’s expectations about an object or concept with respect to a set of salient beliefs and the value of those beliefs. Media System Dependency Theory was originally proposed by Ball- Rokeach and DeFleur (1976). The theory integrates several perspectives: first, it combines perspectives from psychology with ingredients from social categories theory. Second, it integrates systems perspectives with elements from more causal approaches. Third, it combines elements of uses and gratifications research with those of media effects traditions, although its primary focus is less on effects per se than on rationales for why media effects typically are limited. Core assumptions and statements of the Dependency theory proposes an integral relationship among audiences, media, and the large social system. This theory predicts that audience depend on media information to meet certain needs and achieve certain goals, like Uses and Gratification theory. But they do not depend on all media equally. Two factors influence the extent to which consumers depend on the media. First, consumers become more dependent on media that significantly meet their needs than on media that provide just a few. These theories are relevant to this study because of traditional concerns with the content of media messages and their effects on audiences (cognitive, affective and behaviour). Telecommunication Companies in Ghana use a multiplicity of media for advertising campaigns and television is the main advertising medium they adopt. While they use the television medium, what effect does it have on their catchment groups and to what extent do their audience depend on them for information and subsequent recall of their brands? Page 59 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Messaris (1997) introduced ‘The role of Images in advertising’ and emphasized the persuasive use of images in the Chain of Displacement of Emotions Theory. He posits that a major reason for using images in advertising is to ensure consumers elicit a desired response (visual connection), which is influenced by an underlying reaction of our perception of images seen on screens (e.g. Television), as an embodiment of the physical attractions of the real world. Of the assumptions proposed by Messaris (1997), the Chain of displacement of emotions is most relevant to this current study. It occurs in the model Person Image (celebrity) EBrand Image EProduct (actual product on the market), that is from an individual to image of the celebrity, to image of brand and then to the actual product on the market. Messaris, believes that the juxtaposition of the image of the celebrity and the product in the advert was the main embodiment of the key issues of this study. This is because the chain of displacement of emotions has the potency to connect variables through a linear hierarchy of effect, where what happens to one variable also affects the next variable in the hierarchy. Whether or not celebrities are used in TVCs, there is always a relationship between the image of the celebrity and the image of the medium which also connects to the image of the product or the brand. Considering the main variables under study, it is worth conceptualising, based on the chain of displacement of emotions (Messaris, 1997), that ‘elements’ used in a TVC (including a model/celebrity), have a relationship with the ‘image of the medium’ which decodes the'retrieval cues and recall’ which also connects with ‘brand preference’ and ‘brand purchase’, as represented in a model as this; Figure 1: A chain of displacement of emotions among key variables While the chain of displacement of emotion may assume this linear hierarchical model, the placement of this in Messaris assumptions, will be determined by the outcome of the hypotheses and results of this study and whether or not these correlations occur in the telecommunication industry in Ghana? Page 60 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 METHODOLOGY The study used quantitative research approach, specifically, a survey to gather and analyse data. Questionnaires were used to collect data from university students, who may be considered to be among high consumers of telecommunication products to ascertain the impact of advertising recall, product preferences and purchasing action. Final-year (level 400) and third year (level 300) degree students were purposively selected based on their need for telecommunication products at those levels of their studies and social life as students pursuing a professional communication programme. According to Cohen et al (2011), although results from purposive sampling may not be generalizable, that is not the primary concern. Rather, the concern is to acquire in- depth information from those who are able to give it. A total number of 967 students participated in the research: 514 level 400 students and 453 level 300-degree students of the 2018/2019 academic year. Then, A total of 308 students from both groups were randomly sampled. Level 400 students participated most in the study with a representation of 69.8% followed by level 300 students with 30.2%. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively with The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) V.20. The analyses used percentages, mean and standard deviations, Pearson Chi-Square and Linear-by-Linear Association to establish the relationship between variables. The analytical framework was based on the principles for Aided Brand Recall and Aided Advertising Recall (Till and Baack, 2005). The test for recall was guided by the Television Advertisement Influence Scale (TAS) developed by Vinod and Sharma (2009) to measure recall of television advertisement. The TAS was accompanied with snapshots or thumbnails of the TVCs of each brand under study. These snapshots served as retrieval cues to aid the memory of the respondents before attempting to respond to the questions. The last segment of the questionnaire asked respondents to rate a number of constructs according to some definite criterion to test brand Salience (Sutherland and Sylvester, 2006). The telecommunication industry in Ghana The table below indicates the current market share of the major Telecom companies in Ghana. Mobile Voice Subscription for May 2019 Page 61 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 MTN MTN’s voice subscriptions for the period was 21,181,828 representing a percentage increase of 01.36% from April 2019’s figure of 20,896,784. MTN’s market share for the month under review was 51.42%. VODAFONE Vodafone’s mobile voice subscriptions decreased from 10,239,987 as at the end of April 2019 to 10,151,337 as at the end of May 2019. This represents a percentage decrease of 0.87%. Vodafone’s market share for May 2019 was 24.64%. AIRTELTIGO AirtelTigo’s voice subscriptions decreased from 9,503,327 as at the end of April 2019 to 9,134,114 as at the end of May 2019 indicating a percentage decrease of 3.89%. Their market share for the month under review was 22.17% as compared to 22.98% in April 2019. GLO Voice subscriptions of Gio increased from 722,058 as at the end of April 2019 to 725,793 at the end of May 2019. With a percentage increase of 0.52%, their total market share for the month under review was 1.76%. Source: (www.nca.org.gh).2019 FINDINGS Findings are presented with its related interpretations based on the stated research objectives and hypotheses, delving into the attributes of individual variables and how they relate to other variables. Demographically, majority of respondents (86.4%) were between the ages of 21 to 26 years. Gender of respondents were recorded as follows; 60.7% (187) of the respondents were females whiles the remaining 39.3% (121) were males. Most recalled TVC, went in favour of MTN (53.2%), followed by Vodafone TVCs (30.5%), and followed by TIGO TVCs with (16.2%). Major findings of the study are categorised as follows; i. Subscriber base. Level of voice subscription to networks and multiple responses to find the subscriber base for each of the telecommunication companies was analysed. The results indicates that MTN has the largest subscriber base represented by 50.5%, followed by Vodafone represented by 27.4%. TIGO Page 62 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 was next, represented by 19.4%. The least was AIRTEL which accounted for only 2.7% of the total. If subscriber base for MTN was that strong, then a follow up question to establish whether consumers “buy product or service after seeing the adverts” was significant. According to the multiple response results, majority (37.5%) indicated that “it was because their services are good”. ii. Recognition and Recall of TVCs of Telecom Companies. The next category of the analysis presents the extent of recognition and the resultant effects on recall of TVCs of the various Telecom companies. The test for recognition of TVCs offered respondents the opportunity to identify a list of catch phrases from each telecom brand and choose the most recognised within the clutter. MTN ‘4G Switch’ was the most recognized catchphrase (30.3%) within the clutter of MTN TVCs. TIGO ‘Drop that Yam’ was the most recognized catch phrase (37.2%) within the clutter of TIGO TVCs . VODADONE ‘Cash Ekiki Mi’ was the most recognized catch phrase (49.9%) within the clutter of VODAFONE TVCs. Airtel ‘Too Much’ was the most recognized catchphrase (31.9%) within the clutter AIRTEL TVCs. Respondents recognition of the most popular catchphrases as enumerated above, cast a strong reflection and direct effect on the recall of TVCs of the various Telecoms under study. MTN ‘4G Switch’ was the most recalled TVC within the clutter (32.8%) because the same catch phrase was the most recognized as indicated above. TIGO’s ‘Drop that Yam’ was the most recalled TV commercial within the clutter polling 57% because the same catch phrase was the most recognized. VODADONE ‘Cash Ekiki Mi’ was the most recalled TV commercial within the clutter polling 54.2% because the same catch phrase was the most recognised. AIRTEL ‘Flex’, instead of the anticipated AIRTEL ‘Too Much’ catch phrase, turned out to be the most recalled TVC within the clutter polling 32%, even though it was not the most recognised catch phrase earlier. In effect, the rate of recognition (of catch phrases), determined the rate of recall of the most popular TVCs. iii. Effectiveness of Elements in TVCs. Some television adverts of each of the telecommunication companies was examined to ascertain which elements respondents remember; whether it was the message, the catch phrase, the beautiful models, the location and Page 63 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 language used or the creative concept? For ‘TIGO-Drop That Yam’ TVC, the analysis of the multiple responses in table 1 shows that majority, 27.2% indicated that the creative concept is the key element that triggered memory of the advert. Table 1: Elements of ‘TIGO-Drop That Yam' TV advert that aided respondents’ recall of the adverts. Elements Responses N Percent The Message 213 26.80% The catch phrase (swag up) 152 19.10% The beautiful models that were used 72 9.10% The local setting and language used 141 17.80% The creative concept 216 27.20% Total 794 100.00% Responses on whether or not the elements used in the advert were enough to influence respondents to subscribe to the network was analysed with reference to table 2 below; 6.5% of the respondents strongly agreed that elements used in the “TIGO-Drop That Yam” TVC influenced their network subscription while 3.5% and 20.1 % agreed and quiteagreed respectively. This equates to a significant 70.1% agreement on the relationship between elements used in TIGO’s TVC and people’s subscription to the network. Table 2: Elements used in the ‘TIGO-Drop That Yam’ TVC were enough to influence them to subscribe to the network. Options Frequency Percent Strongly Agree 20 6.5 Agree 134 43.5 Quite Agree 62 20.1 Disagree 61 19.8 Strongly Disagree 11 3.6 No response 20 6.5 Total 308 100 Page 64 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 Elements of ‘MTN Music Plus’ TVC that aided respondents’ recall revealed that the TVC had some elements in it that made respondents remember the advert. Analysis of the multiple responses of such elements shows that, for the majority 27.80%, the catch phrase (swag-up) is what made them remember the advert. Responses on whether or not the elements used in the advert were enough to influence respondents to subscribe to the network was analysed with reference to table 3 below; 3.2% of the respondents strongly agreed that elements used in the ‘MTN Music Plus’ TVC influenced their network subscription while 36.7% and 26.6% agreed and quite agreed respectively. This equates to a significant 66.5% agreement on the relationship between elements used in MTN’s TVC and people’s subscription to the network. Table 3: Whether the elements used in the “MTN Music Plus” TV advert were enough reason to influence them to subscribe to the network? Options Frequency Percent Strongly Agree 10 3.2 Agree 113 36.7 Quite Agree 82 26.6 Disagree 51 16.6 No Response 52 16.9 Total 308 100 Responses on whether or not the elements used in the advert were enough to influence respondents to subscribe to the network was analysed within the scale of measurement in table 4 below; 6.5% of the respondents strongly agreed that elements used in the ‘AIRTEL Flex’ TVC influenced their network subscription while 40.3% and 26.6% agreed and quite agreed respectively. This equates to a significant 73.4% agreement on the relationship between elements used in AIRTEL’s TVC and people’s subscription to the network. It was also gathered that the highest-scored element in the AIRTEL Flex ad that respondents remember most was the catch phrase - ‘Now you dey flex oo’. Page 65 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Table 4: Whether the elements used in the “AIRTEL Flex” TV advert were enough reason to influence them to subscribe to the network? Options Frequency Percent Strongly Agree 20 6.5 Agree 124 40.3 Quite Agree 82 26.6 Disagree 51 16.6 Strongly Disagree 11 3.6 No response 20 6.5 Total 308 100 Whether or not the elements used in the advert were enough to influence respondents to subscribe to the network was analysed with reference to table 4 below; 9.7% of the respondents strongly agreed that elements used in the VODAFONE ‘Yendi Agoro’ TVC influenced their network subscription while 43.5% and 23.4% agreed and quite agreed respectively. This equates to a significant 76.6% agreement on the relationship between elements used in VODAFONE’S TVC and subscription to the network. Table 4: Whether the elements used in the ‘Vodafone Yendi Agoro (Dubai)’ TV advert were enough reason to influence them to subscribe to the network? Options Frequency Percent Strongly Agree 30 9.7 Agree 134 43.5 Quite Agree 72 23.4 Disagree 61 19.8 No response 11 3.6 Total 300 100 Elements of VODAFONE ‘Yendi Agoro’ TVC that aided respondents’ recall revealed that the catch phrase ‘Eii! As3 Weather Nu Asesa’ (26.6%) of respondents, is what made them remember the advert. Explicitly, respondents recalled the ads due to the catch phrases. This suggests to telecommunication networks that using good catch phrases aid consumers to recall ads easily and this can make them develop interest for a brand. Page 66 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 More attention must therefore, be paid to ‘catch phrases’ as a predictor of brand recall and brand preference. iv. Thoughts and Feelings after watching TVCs of the Telecoms Thoughts and feelings that TIGO’s ‘Drop That Yam’ TVC evoked in consumers, indicated within the scale of measurement in table 5, that the TVC was ‘funny’, which connotes a feeling of ‘fun’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of respondents. Another 13.0% indicated that the ‘Brand attracts actual and potential customers together; triggering a feeling of ‘attraction’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of respondents. Table 5: Thoughts and feelings of TIGO’s ‘Drop That Yam’ TVC. Chain of displacement of emotions Frequency Percent Funny 41 13.3 Brand attracts actual and potential customers together 40 13.0 Good to use its service 22 7.1 In a quest to test the thoughts and feelings that MTN’s ‘Mobile money Fraud Alert’ TVC evoked in consumers, results indicated that ‘to avoid customers fall victims to fraudsters’ scored 16.6%, which predicts that the TVC probably triggered a feeling of ‘avoidance’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another 13.3% indicated that the same TVC induced a feeling of ‘Security-consciousness’, in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another 9.7% indicated that ‘they care about their customers; invoking a feeling of ‘care’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Table 6: Thoughts and feelings of MTN’s 'Mobile money Fraud Alert’ TVC Chain of displacement of emotions Frequency Percent Security-conscious 41 13.3 They care about their customers 30 9.7 To avoid customers fall victims to fraudsters 51 16.6 In a quest to test the thoughts and feelings that ‘Airtel Talk Chaw’ TVC evoked in consumers, ‘Cheaper brand compared to others’ scored 36.3% ; triggering a feeling of ‘affordability’ in the chain of displacement of emotions Page 67 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 of consumers. Another 6.8% indicated that the same TVC induced a feeling of ‘Care for their customers’; predicting a feeling of ‘care’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another 6.5% indicated that the ‘Brand tends to attract actual and potential customers together’; which connotes that the TVC probably triggered a feeling of ‘attraction’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another, 6.5% indicated that AIRTELTalk Chaw’ TVC was persuasive; triggering a feeling of ‘influence’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Table 7: Thoughts and feelings of ‘AIRTEL Talk Chaw’ TVC Chain of displacement of emotions Frequency Percent Brand attracts actual and potential customers together 20 6.5 Care for their customers 21 6.8 Cheaper brand compared to others 112 36.3 The Ad was persuasive 20 6.5 Finally, to test the thoughts and feelings that VODAFONE Cash ‘(Ekiki Mi)’ TVC evoked in consumers, ‘care for customers’ scored 13.3%, which connotes that the TVC probably triggered a feeling of ‘care’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another 10.1% indicated that ‘VODAFONE ‘Cash Ekiki Mi’ TVC induced a feeling of ‘goodness’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Another 6.8% indicated affordability; stimulating a feeling of ‘low-cost’ in the chain of displacement of emotions of consumers. Table 8: Thoughts and feelings of VODAFONE ‘Cash Ekiki Mi’ TVC. Chain of displacement of emotions Frequency Percent Affordability 21 6.8 Caring for customers 41 13.3 It is good 31 10.1 Thoughts and feelings are part of the key constructs for testing the effectiveness of advertising within a product category in a cluster of adverts. Inferring from the thoughts and feelings that TVCs evoke in consumers, this researcher identifies emerging themes, patterns, insights and constructs are worth noting for academic and industrial discourse. Page 68 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 Some of the evolving consumer insights that emerged in this segment include care, attraction, goodness, security, affordability, low-cost, avoidance and persuasion. These insights do form consumer-constructs or patterns that describe the real feelings and thoughts of consumers; sending clear signals to stakeholders and policy-makers of the main Ghanaian Telecommunication Network Brands. Arguably, these signals are likely to affect future purchasing decisions of consumers and therefore, imperative for marketing executives to consider stimulating the thoughts and feelings of potential consumers by emphasizing and reinforcing these constructs in the mental filing cabinets of consumers. Table 9: Subscription to network and factors that are likely to influence choice of brand in the future. Influential factors Responses N Percent The concept of the TV adverts 83 11.90% The message of the TV adverts 113 16.10% What appeals to you in the adverts 10 1.40% The efficiency of the service 256 36.60% The cost of using the service 145 20.70% Recommendation from friends 93 13.30% Total 700 100.00% To further ascertain whether these constructs may have an effect on the future purchasing decisions of consumers, respondents were further interrogated about what in the future, will influence them to subscribe to a network and what factors are likely to influence their choice of brand? Table 9, provides the results in multiple response. The analysis shows that majority, thus 36.6% would consider the efficiency of the service; Marketers must therefore beware of these new developments. Salience through Top-of-Mind Awareness (TOMA) The final category in this segment was to determine Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA) among the four main Telecommunication Network brands in Ghana, after all these years of running advertising campaigns that have targeted their prime consumers; which is young people between the ages of 18-35years of age; a catchment group. Page 69 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 In order to ascertain brand salience among this targeted group, respondents were asked a basic question; when you hear the phrase “Mobile Telecom network companies in Ghana”, which brand comes to mind first? Analysis of the multiple responses is displayed in table 10. Majority 70.1% (216 respondents) claimed that MTN is the most salient brand on top of the mind of consumers; followed by Vodafone which constitute 13.3%; TIGO follows closely with 9.7% and least is AIRTEL which is 3.2%. Table 10: When you hear the phrase “Mobile Telecom network companies in Ghana", which brand comes to mind first? Options Frequency Percent MTN 216 70.1 VODAFONE 41 13.3 AIRTEL 10 3.2 TIGO 30 9.7 No response 11 3.6 Total 308 100 Proposition 1: H1: That there is no significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service. Table 11a indicates, that there is a significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service. The chi-square value of 22.583, df = 2, p-value = 0.000 shows this. This is further confirmed in Table 11b, that the proportion (i.e. 39.9%) of respondents who recall MTN TVCs purchased the product or service after watching the adverts. The null hypothesis, that there is no significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service was therefore rejected. This study, therefore, supports the assertion that there is a significant positive relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service. That means advertising recall is a predictor of brand purchase. Table 11a: Cross tabulation of Advertising Recall against purchase of product Page 70 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 Purchase of product or service Recall of TV Commercials (TVCs) Yes % No % Total% TIGO 10 40 50 20.0 80.0 100 MTN 61 92 153 39.9 60.1 100 VODAFONE 10 73 83 12.0 88.0 100 Total 81 205 286 28.3 71.7 100 Table 11b: Chi-Square Tests Value df p-value Pearson Chi-Square 22.583 2 0.000 Likelihood Ratio 24.005 2 0.000 Linear-by-Linear Association 3.319 1 0.068 N of Valid Cases 286 Proposition 2 H2: That there is NO significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. It was revealed from table 13a that there is a significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. The chi- square value of 74.198, df = 6, p-value = 0.000 shows this. In other words, the preference of brand is because people recalled the advertisement made about it. Also, it was confirmed by Table 13b that MTN advertisement was recalled most was the preferred brand representing 50.6%. The null hypothesis, that there is no significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference was therefore rejected. This study supports the assertion that there is a significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. That is an indication that advertising recall is a predictor of brand preference. Page 71 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Table 13a: Chi-Square Tests Value Df p-value Pearson Chi-Square 74.198 6 0.000 Likelihood Ratio 94.818 6 0.000 Linear-by-Linear Association 0.632 1 0.427 N of Valid Cases 298 Table 13b: Cross tabulation Recall of Advertisement against Brand preference Brand preference Total Recall of Advertisement Yes(%) No(%) Somehow(%) Other TIGO 0 40 10 0 50 0.0 28.2 18.9 0.0 16.8 MTN 41 91 21 11 164 50.6 64.1 39.6 50.0 55.0 VODAFONE 40 11 22 11 84 49.4 7.7 41.5 50.0 28.2 AIRTEL 81 142 53 22 298 100 100 100 100 100 DISCUSSION Two propositions were tested in this study. Proposition 1; that there is no significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference has also been proven to be false. Results analysed indicate that there is significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference. The chi-square value of 74.198, df = 6, p-value = 0.000 is in the affirmative. Also, it was confirmed that MTN TVCs were the most recalled as well as the preferred brand with a recall rate of 50.6%. In effect, consumer preference for MTN brand is significantly due to recalled MTN TVCs. This study, therefore, supports the assertion that there is significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference in the Telecommunication industry in Ghana. Proposition 2; that there is no significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service has been proven to be wrong. Page 72 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 Results analysed indicate that there is significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service. The chi-square value of 22.583, df = 2, p- value = 0.000 shows 39.9% recall rate for MTN. This study supports the assertion that there is significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product or service. Four main issues emanating from this study are worth discussing for academic discourse, policy and practice. i. Importance of Brand Salience. Brand salience through Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) in this study, has proven to be significant as MTN topped the “Salience" list. With regard to brand salience, MTN happened to be the most salient brand in the minds of majority of the respondents with70.1% (216 respondents) of the sampled population subscribing to MTN. This shows that there might be a significant relationship between subscription and saliency. It then suggests to the telecommunication networks that there is the need to get more people to subscribe to their brands using more persuasive ways in order to keep their brands salient in the minds of people. MTN must therefore find additional means of still remaining salient. Advertisers must therefore maintain a strong relationship with their prime audience and deliver on their promise in order to attain brand-saliency to facilitate purchasing decisions. VODAFONE, however, must keep up their good work in terms of advertising but should make their service (brand) more efficient, since majority of the respondents claim their next choice of brand will be based on ‘efficiency’. ii. Elements of TV advertisements as a catalyst. Elements used in TVCs and their impact on the respondents were tested through the two determinants; ‘thoughts’ and ‘feelings’. The results indicate that for all the four brands (MTN, Vodafone, Airtel and Tigo), majority of the respondents feel the brand is ‘interesting’ and their offers are ‘cool’. With regards to the elements used in the various TV ads of the mobile networks, it is interesting to note that some of the respondents remember the ads because of the various catch phrases used in each ad. Others remember the ad because of the ‘message’, ‘models used’, ‘the local setting’, ‘language used’ and others, because of the creative concepts of the ad. For each ad, respondents had different cues that helped them remember. This can be explained using the arguments of the Expectancy Page 73 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Value Theory which suggests that people’s behaviours are subject to their expectations and the goal they seek to achieve. Advertisers must therefore be aware that consumers make decisions that best serve their interests and not what you make them think about your brand. MTN must consider this result as an advantage to their brand and forthwith improve the elements in their TVCs that will increase the level of recall among their audience. This phenomenon, amazingly, is also true in advertising and brand recall among consumers. Consumers by association have learned that adverts must present attractive, persuasive, glamorous and intriguing elements for effective communication to take place. As they connect to such elements in the ad they take note of the elements that appeal to them and then memorize them. Such elements may include jingles, attractive models, celebrities, colour schemes, and messages among others. That is the more reason why presentation of advertising messages, regardless of the style, must possess retrieval cues (elements) that are capable of helping consumers to memorize advertising messages and related brands. This is consistent with the assertion of Sutherland and Sylvester (2006), that ‘That advertisers want their brand to be cued into people’s minds when they think of making a purchase from that product category.’ iii. Choice of brand in the future. With regard to factors that would influence choice of brand in the future, 37.5% consented that ‘efficiency of the service’ is a factor that is likely to influence their choice. This reflects the fact that consumers seek for ‘efficiency’ and are not always persuaded by the fact that they remember an ad. Defleur’s (2010) theory of Cognitive Processing confirms this outcome, referring to how people handle information mentally when they consciously encounter through the media, some object, event or situation with their senses. Efficiency of service as an outcome in this study, is also consistent with the studies of Owusu and Nyarko (2014) and Olalekan, Babatunde, and Ishola (2015) since it has been found as a catalyst for brand preference. Advertisers must therefore emphasize on the efficiency of their products and its benefits to users. The three main assumptions highlighted by Messaris (1997) are; (1) Juxtaposition of a particular brand with an image of a celebrity (2) Transfer of like. The emotional response elicited by the image of the celebrity is Page 74 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 transferred to the brand (3) The Chain of displacement of emotions. The results gathered by the researcher did not reflect Messaris’ assumptions that much even though most of the respondents agree that elements in adverts that cued them to remember the adverts had influence on their subscription to the networks, especially for MTN. With respect to recall, MTN had the highest recall levels. The element of the ad that scored the highest was the catch phrase, “4G is life”. This is strengthened by Hussain and Arthur Sweeney (2005) who stated that, frequency of advertisement exposure is an important determinant for advertising effectiveness in traditional mass communication such as broadcast and print because most media decisions are based on advertising frequency (Cambell & Keller, 2003; Hitchon & Thorson, 1995). One way of measuring advertising effectiveness is through brand awareness, which is an essential initial step for a communication process to begin; without brand awareness, no other communication effects can occur (Rossiter & Percy, 1998 as cited by Hussain and Sweeney (2005). iv. Thoughts and Feelings as a Solution for Significant Relationship. This researcher recommends that advertisers take into consideration, the thoughts and feelings of consumers in order to win their hearts. Evolving constructs that emerged from the dictates of thoughts and feelings were identified as ‘care’, ‘security’ and ‘avoidance’. Telecom companies must therefore, be aware and take precautions to ensure that these constructs (consumer concerns) are adhered to in service delivery. Furthermore, based on the evolving constructs enshrined in the Conceptual framework (figure 2), Telecom companies must continue to deploy TV advertising appeals that are ‘attractive’ and ‘persuasive elements’ enough to stimulate advertising and brand recall to induce purchase of product and brand preference. For Low-involvement products, this study recommends that evolving constructs that include ‘goodness’, ‘affordability’ and ‘low-cost’, are major consumer concerns that determine purchase of Telecom products or service. Telecom service providers must therefore consider these evolving constructs as a function for purchase of products. Considering the significant relationship between Advertising recall, brand preference and purchase of product or service among students in tertiary Page 75 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 communication institution, it is imperative to consider the three major themes and constructs that resonate as shown in figure 2. a) Thoughts and feelings - to be infused with Care, Security and Avoidance are emerging constructs and consumer concerns resulting from this study. b) TV advertising Appeals - to be infused with Attraction and Persuasive elements in order to trigger advertising recall as indicated by respondents in this study. c) Low-Involvement products - to be infused with Goodness of service, Affordability of product or service and lower-cost of low-involvement Telecom products which emerged as major concerns of consumers resulting from this study. Themes Infuse Emerging Constructs Solution a. Thoughts and feelings Care, Security and Avoidance Significant relationship b. TV advertising Appeals Attractive and Persuasive elements Significant recognition and recall of Brand. c. Low-Involvement products Goodness of service, Affordability of product or service Lower-cost of low- involvement Telecom products Significant recall of product and purchase of product or service. Page 76 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 Figure 2: Conceptual Framework for Advertising Recall and Brand Preference in the Telecom Industry in Ghana Fimirp 7 • Cnnmntiml P'rnmtrumrlr fnr Jdvortivinn J?X>/VT77 rtnrl Rr/infi A critical analysis of this proposed Conceptual framework, indicates that the chain of displacement of emotions as posited by Messaris (1997) assumptions, may not necessarily follow a linear hierarchical model, at least within the context of this study and the proposed framework. This is due to the outcome of the study and the test emerging from the hypotheses of this study. It is evident from the Conceptual framework, that the chain of displacement of emotions, assume a top-to-bottom triangular approach before a linear path. That the exposure of TVCs of Telecoms, through the image of the medium, triggers advertising recall. However, the recall is triggered by the inducement of TV advertising appeals and the amount of elements that are presented in the advert; which also require the infusion of evolving constructs such as ‘attractive and persuasive elements’. What it means then is that, there is a vertical or discourse relationship between TVC of Telecoms, Image of medium, Advertising Recall (AR) and Advertising appeals (with induced elements). While this occurs, it is obvious in the figure 2, that ‘Advertising Page 77 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Recall (AR)’ (whether aided or unaided), have the potency to trigger ‘Brand Preference (BP)’ (to the left hand) and also trigger ‘Purchase of Product (PP)’ (to the right hand). This reveals the moderating role of Advertising Recall (AR) which can swing the consumer decision pendulum to either direction. Notwithstanding, both BP and PP are induced by some evolving constructs emanating from this study. Whereas BP is inspired by evolving constructs such as Thoughts and Feelings (TF) it may all together be triggered by AR, if BP is induced with consumer concerns such as ‘Care’, ‘Security’ and ‘Avoidance’. Purchase of Product (PP) on the other hand, will only be stimulated by Advertising Recall (AR) only if it is induced with the evolving consumer concerns ‘Goodness’, Affordability’, and ‘Low-cost’ that are associated with Low Involvement (LI) products. It is therefore imperative to note that Advertising Recall (AR), as it occurs among consumers, is a psychological dissonance and a predictor of Brand Preference (BP) and Purchase of Product (PP), however, AR is influenced by some underlying factors such as Image of the Medium and TV Advertising appeals (with its elements). Those elements if well treated, have the potency to serve as retrieval cues for recall. Much as this researcher agrees with the first two assumptions of Messaris (1997), there is some disagreement with his chain of displacement of emotions within the context of the Ghanaian consumer situation. That the chain of displacement of emotions, does not assume the same linear hierarchy of effects approach within the Telecom industry in Ghana. That the linear hierarchy of effects approach is truncated by a rather top-to- bottom hierarchy approach interlaced with a converse or triangulation mapping and the relationship between the variables tested in this study is not all together linear. Stakeholders, must therefore put these themes and constructs in context to encourage students to recognize and recall TVCs and subsequently stimulate the significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference and purchase of low-involvement Telecom products or services. Page 78 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS As suggested by Defluer (2010), cognition is influenced by a host of cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors. These factors therefore influenced the answers by the respondents at particular times as each individual has a unique pattern of cognition. With regard to the findings of this research, it can be deduced that the above mentioned variables play vital roles in the struggle to win the attention and minds of consumers. Advertisers and telecommunication networks should not only focus on aesthetic appeal of adverts but rather the goals of the campaign and how other forms of integrated marketing communications such as personal selling, sales promotions among others, could be adopted to enhance the consumer’s pattern of cognition and recall. This study has shown that, there is significant relationship between advertising recall and brand preference similarly as there is significant relationship between advertising recall and purchase of product, at least within the telecommunication industry in Ghana. It is also unambiguous that in the future it is not adverts but rather the ‘efficiency of service’ that will influence subscribers to choose a brand. This research thus makes some recommendations. Advertisers, creative directors and copy writers should recognise the need for more attractive elements to be embedded in the adverts to serve as retrieval cues that will help consumers easily remember the ads and the brands and subsequently choose a brand. Advertisers should also take notice of the fact that recall of TVCs do significantly lead to brand preference and purchase, however, efficiency of the network/ service is also of significance to elicit brand preference and purchase, among tertiary communication students. This researcher recommends that these telecommunication companies must foster a good balance between ‘efficiency of service’ and ‘recall of TVCs’ to provide a double-barrel effect to patronage rather than depending solely on recall of TVCs. Finally, thoughts and feelings of consumers concerning the brand have been discovered as a moderating variable in this study and Telecom companies must treat it immaculately with considerations given to the major themes and constructs that come with it. The caveat is that ‘Thoughts and feelings’ alongside ‘TV Advertising appeals’ among Low-Involvement products, are significant enough to trigger advertising recall which significantly affect brand preference and purchase of product or service. Telecom companies must therefore be sensitive to this moderating variable. Page 79 2021 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 REFERENCES Aaker, J.L. 1997. Dimensions of Brand Personality. Journal of Marketing Research. 34, 347-356. Anderson, J.R., & Bower, G.H. 1972. Recognition and retrieval processes in free recall. Psychological Review, 79(2), 97-123. D0l:org/10.1037/h0033773 Bagozzi, R.R & Silk, A.J. 1983. Recall, recognition, and the measurement of memory for print advertisements. Marketing Science, 2(2): 95-134. Retrieved April 6, 2021. From: http://www.jstor.org/stable/184113 Ball-Rokeach, S.J. & DeFleur, M.L. 1976. A dependency model or massmedia effects. Communication Research, 3: 3-21. Brian D. Till & Daniel W. Baack (2005). Recall and persuasion: Does creative advertising matter? Journal of Advertising, 34:3, 47-57. DOI: 10.1080/00913367.2005.10639201 DeFluer, M.L. & Ball-Rokeach, S.J. 1989. Theories of mass communication, 5th ed. White Plains, NY: Longman. du Plessis, E. 2005. The advertised mind: Ground-breaking insights into how our brains respond to advertising. NewYork: Kogan Page, p 165. Farina A. 2014. Communication theories. In Soundscape Ecology. Dordrecht: Springer. 63-105. DOI:org/10.1007/978-94-007-7374-5_4 Kim, C. & Kahle, L. 2006. Creating images and the psychology of marketing communication. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Kotler, P. 2010. Marketing management, millenniun ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall International. Krugman, H. 1986. Low recall and high recognition of advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, (February/March): 79-86. Lambin, J. 2007. Market-driven management. South Yarra: Palgrave Macmillan. Lodish, L., Abraham, M., Kalmenson, S., Livelsberger, J., Lubetkin, B., Richardson, B. & Stevens, M. 1995. How TV advertising works: A meta Page 80 http://www.jstor.org/stable/184113 Journal of Communications, Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 2021 analysis of 389 real world split cable TV advertising experiments. Journal of Marketing Research, 32(2): 125-39. Littlejohn, S.W. & Foss, K.A. 2009. Encyclopaedia of communication theory. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, Inc. Mehta, A. & Purvis, S. 2006. Reconsidering recall and emotion in advertising. Journal of Advertising Research, 46(1): 49-56. Messaris, P. 1997. Visual persuasion: the role of images in advertising. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc. Myers, D. G. 2004. Psychology, 7th ed. New York: Worth Publishers. Ojenike, B. 2012. Effects of advertising on consumer preference for telecommunication firms in Nigeria. New Media and Mass Communication Journal, Vol. 6. Olalekan, O.D., Babatunde, A.M. & Ishola, O.W. 2015. Advertising and consumer choice of telecommunication services in Nigeria. Journal of Competitiveness, 7(3): 37- 49. DOI: 10.7441/joc.2015.03.03. Ormrod, J.E. 2009. Essentials of educational psychology, 2nd ed. Merrill, N.J: Upper Saddle River. Owusu, D. & Nyarku, K.M. 2014. Influence of print advertising on the decisions of tertiary students to purchase telecom products in the Cape Coast Metropolis: The moderating role of price and service quality delivery. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 4(10). DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v4- i10/1229 Protor, T. 2003. Essentials of marketing research, 3rd ed. Gosport: Ashford Colour Press Ltd., Rishante, S.P. 2014. The effect of television advertisement of mobile telecommunication companies in Nigeria on viewers’ choice preference. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, 5(26). Page 81 2021 Journal of Communications: Media & Society (JOCMAS) Vol 7 | No.1 Sheth, J.N. &Tuncalp, S. 1974. Structural assumptions underlying fishebein’s expectancy-value model of attitudes, Faculty Working Papers, College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Sutherland, M. & Sylvester, A. 2006. Advertising and the mind of the consumer, 2nd ed. South Australia: Griffin Press. Vinod, K.B. & Sharma, R. 2009. The impact of TV advertising on buying behaviour: A comparative study of urban and rural teenagers. Journal of Management and Technology, 1(1): 65-76. Wingfield, A. 1994. Expectancy value theory. Educational Psychology Review, 6(1). Witt, G.A. 1946. High impact: How you can create ads that sell! Scottsdale, Arizona: Halstead Publishing. Wong, L. 2005. Essential study skills, 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,. Yakup, D. & Jablonsky, S. 2012. Integrated approach to factors affecting consumers purchase behaviour in Poland and an empirical study. Global Journal of Management And Business Research. Vol.12. Page 82