INFLUENCE OF ADVERTISING IN MOTIVATING CONSUMER BRAND PREFERENCE FOR SOFT DRINKS AMONG BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study examined the influence of advertising in motivating consumer brand preference for soft drinks among business education students in tertiary institutions in Anambra State. two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Related literatures were reviewed which showed the gap for the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 183 (2022-2023) final year business education students from the four public tertiary institutions in Anambra State offering business education courses. The entire population was used for the study since the population was not too large to necessitate sampling, thus census sampling method was used. The instrument for data collection was two structured questionnaire. The structured questionnaire was validated by two experts in the field of business education and one in measurement and evaluation of the same institution. The reliability of the instrument was established using pilot test and data collected were analysed using Cronbach Alpha formula which yielded co-efficient values of 0.87 and 0.82 for clusters B1 and B2 with an overall value of 0.85 and cluster C with co-efficient 0.75. 173copies of questionnaire were duly completed and retrieved representing 94.5% of the instrument used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation for research questions while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that respondents agreed that social media and podcast advertisings to a high extent influence motivate consumer brand preference for soft drinks in tertiary institutions in Anambra State based on type of institution. Gender and type of institution did not significantly influence respondents’ mean rating of social media and podcast advertisings in motivating consumer brand preference for soft drinks among business education students in tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The t-test of hypotheses revealed that gender and types of institution, significantly influence the mean rating of respondents on billboard, mobile,television and radio advertisingsin motivating consumer brand preference for soft drinks. The researcher concluded that advertising have positive and significant influence in motivating consumer brand preference for soft drinks. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended among others that; soft drink owners should consider identification of their products using different modes of advertising to reach the right people. The study contributed to the academic literature by revealing the degree of influence advertising on consumer brand preference for soft drinks among business education students in tertiary institution.