Assessing the influence of radio advertising on consumer purchasing decisions

Abstract

Radio advertising is an advertising platform that has been used by brands, products and services since 1922. The influence of radio advertising on a consumer’s purchase decision is tough to determine, the research that is available on radio advertising, in general, is far less in comparison to other advertising research studies in the marketing of brands, products and services. This study aims to determine the impact of radio advertising on a consumer purchase decision. The majority of research studies rely on the effect of television and print advertising, and recently internet advertising has shown a higher engagement level for consumers to influence purchase decisions. The disruptive nature of internet advertising has had an influence on the revenue generation for traditional platforms such as radio, print and television. Radio advertising is a platform used mostly by local businesses on a local radio station in the business’s vicinity. Research in the marketing of brands, products and services have included radio advertising, including the singularity of a message of a radio advertisement message recall-analysis. Traditional media are used for branding, and to action a sales promotion to drive revenue generation and profitability. Advertising does have a material influence on consumers’ purchase decisions. The question in this study determines the influence radio would have on that decision. A quantitative research design was used to collect data from the population which can be described as radio station listeners who engage with the radio station on different methods (for example on the website, Facebook and Twitter). No sample was drawn and all 505 listeners were target to complete a SurveyMonkey questionnaire. (A total of 95 responded representing almost 19% response rate). In the study, there has not been an insight into the time it would take for a radio advertising campaign to affect a purchase decision. Despite the limitations of this research study, the results answer the essential research question. The results of this study indicate that radio advertising does have a material impact and influence on consumers’ purchase decisions some of the time or a majority of the time. Further research is needed to endorse the findings in this research study and create many more variables, which may show signs of success.