Exploring the influence of television advertising on the buying behaviour of the youth in South Africa

Abstract

Brands and organizations are spending large amounts of money from their advertising budgets to develop, produce and place advertisements on television with the aim of communicating their brand messages effectively to their consumers (Fill, 2009). In today's competitive world it is very difficult for companies to compete and differentiate themselves from each other (Frederiksen, 2018). Because the youth in South Africa are of vast significance to marketers in terms of segment size and buying power, the researcher felt the need to explore the influence of television advertisements on young, South African consumers with reference to high- involvement consumer goods. Research was conducted using the interpretivist paradigm and used an exploratory research design. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were used on 7 participants and it allowed the researcher to understand their subjective perspectives. The responses were analysed using thematic analysis, and the findings indicate that TV has little influence on the participant’s purchase decisions regarding high-involvement goods. This research assists brands to plan and execute their marketing and advertising more effectively when communicating high-involvement brands to young consumers in South Africa.