THE IMPACT OF ADVERTISING ON CONSUMER PERCEPTION AND BUYING BEHAVIOUR; A STUDY OF FAST FOOD INDUSTRY OF KARACHI.

Abstract

The present research paper is focusing on the impact of advertising on consumer's buying behaviors. Brand image, persuasiveness and celebrity endorsement in the advertising are the key factors, which raise the consumers' intentions towards the product and buying behaviors. Advertising bridges the gap between companies and their target. It creates a platform that provides an opportunity to introduce a new product or remind consumers about existing products. The advertising has a foremost and vital impact on purchasing behavior of consumers. Consumers often judge the satisfaction they derive from using the product to what is portrayed in the advertisement. From the consumer's point of view, the purpose of advertising is to obtain information about goods and services that are available for sale (Warmke et al. 1977: 66). Consumers take the careful decision to patronize products and services based on several reasons they consider as important. This research has the ultimate objective to examine the impact advertising has on the consumer's decision to purchase a product. Despite the key role of advertising on consumer buying decision, other factors such as product packaging, quality, endorsement from previous users and sometimes product esteem influences the consumer's stage of taking action towards a product. It is important to the seller for advertising to establish a trade name, slogan or product image (Warmke et al. 1977: 66). Companies employ the advertising function to convince people to develop interest and patronize it. Advertising involves the perception it brings about in the mind of the target consumer. This is what can result in the consumer's action of patronizing the product or service. The study explores that a creative and well executed advertisement has always a great impact on the buying trends or purchasing behaviors of the consumers. At the same time quality of the product and price are also included with their strong impact on buying behavior of consumer. Likewise to some extent the celebrity endorsement also matters in the buying behavior. Therefore the study concludes that the positive impact of all these factors, on the buying behavior of the consumer proves the loyalty of consumer towards brand which helps in promotion of the advertised product and changes the buying behavior towards buying intentions.