Audience Perception of the Role of Advertising on Product Positioning and Brand Loyalty in the Nigerian GSM Market

Every company wants to adopt the right marketing communications technique intended to present its product to the different members of the public that constitute its target market. The company chooses a message to disseminate through the right channel that can lead to a created need in the target market. This is the scenario in the Nigerian telecommunication market. To ascertain the role advertising plays in product positioning and consumer choice of brand, the study focused on the two leading GSM providers - MTN and Globacom. The study adopted the survey method with questionnaire as the instrument of gathering data from 143 respondents in Lagos. The data revealed that advertising can affect the way consumers rank a brand’s attributes, such as color, taste, smell, and texture and that it can make consumers to be more informed about the brand and more generally favorable disposed to it. On the basis of this, the study concluded that since advertising and quality of product are two major influences on consumer preferences, GSM network service providers must ensure that product quality and effective service delivery are fused with effective promotions in order to influence the target market. However to achieve these the study recommended that advertisers must try to understand the different behavioural levels that customers pass through. It is only when they do that they can create a message that will meet all requirements.