The Nigerian Telecommunication Advertising Marketing Essay

Published Date: 23 Mar 2015

Deceptive advertising often happens within the marketplace thus It is often debated whether deceptive advertising is been practiced in the telecoms industry in Nigeria. This research tries to explore whether the Nigerian telecoms industry employs strategic deceptive tactics to combat competition for increased customer acquisition and retention or otherwise. This study offers originality through its scrutiny into and interpretation of this particular phenomenon. The background of study is stated and a literature review on the description of deceptive advertising, along with various deception tactics is elaborated on as argued by various researchers. The methodology is structured showing a qualitative method; collection of data is done through interviews with customers and marketers while the research findings pointed out a few deception tactics present in the Nigerian Telecommunication ad campaign which were strategically used. From this, implications and propositions for future research are drawn.

Keywords: Nigeria, Telecommunications, Deception /Deceptive advertising

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background and Context of Study 7

Nigerian Telecommunication Advertising 8

Research Aims 10

Research Objective 10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Describing Deceptive Advertising 11

2.2 Deception is Persuasion 13

2.3 Deception Tactics 14

2.3.1 Disguise and Distraction 15

2.3.2 Omissions 16

2.3.3 Language that Misinforms and Shuns Responsibility 16

2.3.4 Visual and Verbal Distortion 17

2.3.5 Deceptive Framing 18

2.4 Deception Screening Devices 19

2.4.1 Consumer Impression Method 19

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Philosophy 20

3.2 Research Approach 20

3.3 Data Collection Method 21

3.3.1 In-depth Interviews 21

3.3.2 Participant Observation 22

3.4 Sampling and Study location 22

3.5 Ethical Considerations 23

3.6 Data Analysis 23

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DATA ANAYLSIS

4.1 Introduction to the Chapter 24

4.2 Findings and Analysis 24

4.2.1 Language that Misinforms and Shuns Responsibility 25

4.2.2 Visual and Verbal Distortion 28

4.2.3 Omissions 31

4.2.4 Other Findings 32

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction 34

5.2 Conclusion 34

5.3 Managerial Implications and Recommendations 35

5.4 Limitations of Research 36

5.5 Future Research 37

REFERENCES 38

APPENDICES 42

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background and Context of Study

Deception in reality is a more vital subject in marketing and consumer research than is shown is present literature. After much insight into the different but limited writings on deception in humanities, social sciences, marketing etc, this research came about "The use of strategic deception in telecommunication advert campaigns in Nigeria". Deception in advertising is described as a company's misrepresentation to customers on the features of the product or service advertised thus the anticipated utility from making use of the product or service (Nagler, 1993). Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) policy states that an advert is seen as "deceptive" if there is an omission, representation, practice or act organized by a corporation that is prone to deceive a customer.(FTC , 1984).

Hence, Successful advertising is however almost always persuasive advertising, persuasion is therefore defined as the means of attempting to change or modify the significant beliefs, values, actions and wants of consumers; social life is occupied by unconscious and conscious, strong or substantial shots at persuasion (John O'Shaughnessy et al, 2004). In a competitive market those who persuade consumers best are those with a higher possibility to win. Persuasion is very essential even in situations where competition is hopeless.

This research aims to explore the strategic use of deception in telecommunications advert campaigns, as a major technique for persuasion in a very competitive environment like Nigeria. This research has selected telecommunication advert campaigns as sample of the study as it is said or believed to engage in a lot of marketing communications, especially TV and Print advertising. Nigeria has been recognized as the largest telecom market in all of Africa in the past years; its telecom sector is experiencing rapid transformation as a result of explosive progression and speedy infrastructure expansions. The telecom sector Liberalization along with augmented competition among operators have fetched significantly large benefits to the customers in terms of reduced subscription rates and heightened choice. However, the Nigerian Government is putting in all efforts to convert or alter the country's economy into an economy that is knowledge based (RNCOS, 2012).

According to the research carried out by (RNCOS, 2012) it was recognized that competition among several telecom operators is expanding as they seek new business growth and customer retention techniques to maintain and acquire higher market share. Therefore, operators are assertively driving placement of network infrastructure, which is however pushing investments in Nigeria's telecoms sector. The research also shows a summary of the competitive background, in which the top industry operators have been reported alongside their marketing techniques.

Currently, MTN, Airtel, MTEL, Etisalat and Globacom Limited lead the GSM industry in Nigeria (Tella et al, 2007). According to (NCC,2012 ), MTN holds over 46% of the market share with 41,641,089 subscribers while Globacom holds over 22% of the market share with about 19,886,014 subscribers also Airtel holds 20% of the market share with 18,028,385 subscribers while Etisalat holds 12% of the market share with 10,752,230 subscribers. This makes MTN the number one leader while Globacom the second leader in the telecoms industry.

Nigerian Telecommunication Advertising

Telecom advertising is a provisional section of the marketing procedure that is used to promote sales by triggering excitement and granting various incentives to customer, thereby persuading the customers to make a progressive decision. Advertising and promotions are the main methods utilized in selling telecom services to consumers in Nigeria. Advertising gives justification to use the services provided by a service operator whereas the sales promotions give incentives which are short term for the customers or subscribers to take on the services available (Ogungbe,2011).

Telecom promotional campaign is often put together to persuade consumers that the products and services provided by the service operators are necessary for their satisfaction. Marketers attempt to convince consumers/subscribers by presenting draws, stringing to the rise of lucky winners of numerous gift items like power generators, refrigerators, cars, television sets, recharge cards, cell phones and cash awards. These are the kind of incentives Nigerians look forward to owning; therefore lots of consumers participate in the draw which considerably increases the service operators or providers sale. Consequently, the Telecom sales objective is generally met, just like other sales promotions, is to rise above the actual sales quota (Ogungbe, 2011).

Telecom sales promotions function directly with advertising which is a major part of marketing. It however incorporates a large number of techniques which includes special price reduction, (Glo to Glo calls), competitions (projections in the course of a football match), games, rebates, premiums, gifts and lotteries etc. The promotional messages are generally passed across to consumers in a persuasive and convincing style and language via text messages, newspapers, television and radio (Ogungbe, 2011).

Deception in advertising has been of immense concern for a lot of policy makers and consumers. As soon as customers trust an advert to be factual when it is in fact false, customers may be hurt (Attas, 1999). Customers like their belief to be factual and if a customer is persuaded by an advert, then the customer might be interested in buying the product advertised or enter for the promotion advertised. Possibly more customers will purchase the product due to deceptive advert claims since they trust it to be of better significance i.e the customers tend to give more than the actual price for the product. (Attas, 1999). In addition, the company trades even more products at the standard price. This logic tries to propose that companies are firmly crafting and posting uncertain, deceitful ads; and customers are purchasing products and entering promotions trusting these companies deception; therefore companies are attaining a lot of revenue at the expense of a deceived populace. Which means, some companies many have executed a strategy meant to mislead customers into trusting that a product or service is more attractive than what it actually is just for the benefit of improved sales (Attas, 1999).

Research Aims

To examine the likely presence of deceptive traits in telecommunication advert campaigns in Nigeria for the sole purpose of persuasion to bridge competition,

To expatiate on the idea of strategic deception in advertising.

To explore the likely effects of deceptive advertising on consumers.

Research Objective

This research investigates the use of strategic deception in telecommunication advert campaigns and its likely effects on consumers. For this to be done, data will be collected via multiple research methods which are participant observation and compilation of telecoms advertising data in Nigeria. In-depth interviews will also be conducted by the researcher to gain more understanding.

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Describing Deceptive Advertising

The notion of the terms "deceptive" and deception are equivocal, socio - culturally structured ideas. The idea of deception is different across generations and across cultures. In social science Masip, Garrido, and Herrero, (2004) carefully checked several definitions or descriptions of deception, they projected an integrative description that defines deception as "the planned effort, whether profitable or not, to hide, construct and influence in any way emotional or authentic information, by nonverbal or verbal method, so as to sustain or generate in the consumer an idea that the communicator sees as false. This description integrates the ideas of a communicator's previous beliefs and intentionality.

In communication, all attempts of deception are intentional. Every marketing communication is planned, structured and carried out consciously, by professionals in communication. However a marketer is accountable for inactions and actions that have an outstanding probability of deceiving and misleading customers. Marketers are open to the skill and resources to completely teach themselves about the implications of deception in their marketing actions or activities. For marketers to be nondeceptive it compels them to teach or educate themselves so that they are in a situation to comprehend how and when their omissions or activities may mislead. By accepting this stage marketers can regulate their activities so as to prevent deceiving customers, except of course they intentionally want to mislead customers (Boush et al, 2009).

Several definitions of deception in advertising have been proposed by different regulatory associations, legal bodies and agencies. As stated above, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) policy statement on deception states that an advert is seen as "deceptive" if there is an omission, representation, practice or act organized by a company that is prone to deceive a customer.(FTC , 1984). If these situations have happened, the FTC will scrutinize the attempt from the viewpoint of the customer, acting rationally under the specific situation. If the attempt influences directly or is intended towards a specific group, the FTC will investigate rationality from the viewpoint of the group. The omission, representation, practice or act should be material. "Material" is if the act is liable to influence the customer's decision or behaviour with reference to the service or product presented by the business executing such practice. If the outcome happens to be that the customer's conduct is influenced, then the practice is seen as material. If material, then a customer may be harmed by such an act because the customer may take decisions grounded on the unspecified deception that the customers would have not shaped otherwise or their choice could have been distinct from the one actually taken (FTC, 1984).

FTC evaluates advertisements for their distinctive content, as well as the phrases, pictures and words which clearly and absolutely portray false or misleading claims. The FTC will examine both clear or explicit and implicit or absolute claims. An explicit or clear claim is a claim which is precisely made in the advert. Example, "Books supply knowledge" an implicit claim is subliminally made. This statement, "Books supply information which string towards knowledge" suggests rather than precisely attributing the book to knowledge. Materiality is vital in figuring out deceptive advertising. Any statement constructed in an advert must contain enough proof to back up the claim and should be connected to relevance.

The FTC stresses that the omission of specific information for an advert can be considered as deceptive since the non-inclusion of material information can string a consumer to arrive at a false or mistaken idea about a service or a product (FTC, 1984).

Example, if a company like Starbucks was to disseminate coupons for a free cup of coffee when a customer purchases one, but does not make it clear that prior purchase should be five dollars at least to redeem the coupon; this is a clear example of a deceptive act, A previous purchase of five dollars at least to redeem the coupon is a material situation. The omission from the coupon is obviously deceptive and clearly forbidden by FTC. A consumer with the intention of using the coupon has been tricked for the benefit of the company. The consumer is intentionally misled into trusting that any purchase would do and has been taken into the store under false claim. This instance clearly shows why material omission is seen as deceptive by the FTC and is illegal by the law (FTC, 1984).

2.2 Deception is Persuasion

Not all marketplace persuasion encompasses deception, but every marketplace deception takes place to persuade. In other words deception in the marketplace is persuasion (Miller & Stiff, 1988) and is influential to the persuasive aim of the marketer. It does not happen solely to influence consumer's idea as an aim in itself, nor does it happen to merely amaze, entertain or amuse. Marketplace deception tries to draw attention and establish feelings or moods, but the end result is constantly persuasion. Deception is a main social influence technique and a collection of central persuasion strategies. Any act of persuasion can involve deception. Any act of persuasion can be utilized as a "deception accomplice or collaborator" so that it boosts the realization of a deception passed on somewhere in an assumed statement, campaign or message.

Cialdini, (2001) and Pratkanis, (2008) expatiated on the kinds of persuasion techniques that research implies can boost persuasive effect. They can all be carried out through deception, and all can turn out to be an accomplice or collaborator of, deception, whether or not it is implemented through deception or genuinely. Cialdini (2001) states that research points out that these persuasion techniques thrive mostly when they induce just System 1 processing by customers, which is when they soar beneath the deception - protection sensor or radar. He singled out six aspects that push people into making use of automatized outline corresponding responses to messages that are persuasive: a feeling of stress generally, being uninterested about the topic, feeling undecided, being in a haste, being unfocused, and being exhausted. This suggests that marketers will attempt to bring about situations differentiated by a number of or all of those aspects or factors when implementing a persuasion approach deceptively or for purposes of deception. While circumstances such as (cognitive fatigue, indifference, distractedness) may happen unintentionally in certain situations, deception drivers will lean towards creating those conditions. However, if these persuasion techniques do hang on creating situations that reduce and repress a person's deception defence ability, then these are essentially manipulative tactics.

2.3 Deception Tactics

A lot of deception theorists declare that deceptions wholly consist of simulation and dissimulations. Anolli et al. (2002) states that there are four main kinds of deceptions: omission, lying, concealment and simulation. Bear it in mind that these are not equally restricted or exclusive; marketers in reality combine their use. Example, both omission and concealment are utilized to disguise and also aid in deceptive simulation. Johnson et al, (1993) took up a deception typology, from authors (Bell and Whaley, 1991). Johnson et al, (1993) described dissimulation as a strategy that delays communication or information of a precise portrayal of the core deception. They described simulation as a strategy that promotes an inaccurate portrayal of the core deception. The concept of core deception is useful; it concerns the things the agent of the deception will attempt to distort, or to make a customer bias in their own mind. In the context of marketplace, it should be broadly defined. Obviously, deceptions can take place in the falsification of services and products being shopped by the agent, as well as their characteristics, risks, benefits, usage consequence and so on.

The deception crux or core can however, comprise of deceptive illustrations such as objects, statements and pictures about several components of some persuasion tactics utilized in the message or statement to boost its persuasive influence. It involves distortion of a substitute service and product to the precise one being marketed, example, a contending brand or substitute product type. It comprises of distortions of defective things that could occur if the customer does purchase the product being marketed, and of peculiar things that will occur from making use of the product. The deception crux or core also comprises distortions about the characterized transaction. It comprises of distortions made around things that a scientist or social critic has spoken about or might speak about the disadvantages and risks of the product. It comprises of distortions on how to track and acquire more on the product, and how handlers with distinct levels of capability and knowledge can utilize it securely and effectively under prospective usage conditions.

There are several deception tactics practiced today by marketers in everyday marketing and in marketing communication such as:

2.3.1 Disguise and Distraction

Disguise and distraction is known to subdue defensive cognitive reaction activities that need effort like counter arguing (Petty & Brock, 1981). In studies on persuasion, researchers normally engage subjects for the whole period of a persuasive message or information; firmly separate the distracter away from the persuasive information or message. Deceitful marketers utilize distraction more sneakily and strategically than that, by manufacturing distractions in an advert campaign that is timed and positioned to interrupt administration of particular discoveries in the ad about disadvantages, limitations and risk. Marketers' distractions are skilfully structured, pretested, and timed strategically to enable the deception of customers. Modern media communication present marketers with a breathtaking collection of attention getting technological abilities; before marketers spread adverts, promotional materials, website on an extensive basis, they research with, modify, pre-test and amend their utilization of these technological abilities to draw attention as proficiently as they can.

2.3.2 Omissions

Completely omitting information on a specific risk, disadvantage or limitation, is a common marketplace deception technique (Kardes, Posovac, & Cronley, 2004). Marketers leave out harmful revelations and establish their productions to stop consumers from contemplating on their evaluation criteria or decision making standards, to guarantee that an omission is ignored. Usually marketer's exhibitions give partial omissions or "half- truths". For a long time, people have mentioned a half - truth as an omission mixed among truthful surprises, as a main malicious form of deception, frequently debating that half - truth is "the darkest of lies". To recognize that something vital is not being shown or portrayed, a customer requires having a noticeable and understandable mental pattern of expectancy about what should be unhidden. Strategist in communication obstruct this by reassuring customers into a sense of exigency or proposing that "being decisive or critical" and taking swift action is superior to thinking and self discipline, and by separating their own advert and resources from those of immediate opposition whose adverts and resources can offer a different model of revelation that render the marketers omission obvious.

2.3.3 Language that Misinforms and Shuns Responsibility

A deceptive technique involves plans and methods to avoid the negative aftermath of being exposed and sanctioned. Guerin, (2003) examines research on how language is used by people to avoid negative aftermaths or consequences from what is being said. Strategies in linguistics for avoiding the negative aftermath for making deceitful statements are referred to as disclaimer, hedging, equivocation or mitigation. Guerin debates that avoiding negative aftermath means evading clear challenges. Marketers use unclear or hedging language to attempt avoiding the negative aftermath in the customer's mind that follow skepticism. Marketers perform this responsively, that is, by awaiting the absolute disbelief on the presentation reliability to happen in the customers mind or to be voiced, (example to a sales representative), and however seek to provide response through some avoidance tactics. A large amount of marketers will attempt to do this pre-emptively. Guerin, (2003) examines how researches on equivocation, hedges and mitigation have moved on in different social science departments under diverse names and several grouping techniques or schemes (e.g., Caffi, 1999;Holmes, 1990). Hedges involve presenting proactive "explanation" or "justifications" for one's deceptive acts, separating one's self from the exhibition and assertion of one's social solidarity in conjunction with the target. A familiar form of hedging is to make use of modal vocabulary like "possibly", "should", "maybe", "could", and quantifiers like "most likely", "a few". These vocabulary permits a conclusive and positive phrase, to be utilized and then the definitive phrase should be qualified by including imaginable variations to it.

2.3.4 Visual and Verbal Distortion

Jointly, blatant verbal lying and blatant visual lying are exceptionally problematic for customers to handle because video and engineering communication technologies have outdone customer self-protection abilities. Verbal lying, is overtly expressing in words something regarding an actual thing or individual in a way that distorts that entity's actuality. Visual lying is overtly portraying a visual image of an entity that is actually real, in a visually biased way that distorts its physical, obvious reality. The verbal lies of marketers are hard for consumers to deal with because identifying the lie as such is subject to having certain information in memory that signals the depiction as mistaken and fabricated. Technological manufacturing inventions have put consumers in a state where they frequently do not have the required technical information for questioning or trusting something a marketer states concerning a product as untruth. Likewise, technological inventions for perfectly changing visuals put customers in a situation of not being capable of determining for themselves when a particular thing in a visual representation has been changed except they have word-perfect visual representation in mind of the actuality of that thing (Wheeler, 2002).

Consumers are more reliant for their recognition of visual and verbal lying built on the material of the lie on the forewarnings of other individuals who are further abreast of the reality, and can better sense lies. Marketers can now utilize the dramatically augmented technological ability as a deception means to make perfect changes to genuine visual representations. The formation of any visual representation includes persuasion and clarification. (Wheeler, 2002). Factually, it has constantly included a procedure in which a communicator chooses, highlights and cleans so that the portrayed representation is perfect in appearance than the actual referent. Paintings are conformed representations done over several sittings, stirring or blending together people and objects from various places. Photos and paintings have long shown two people in sync who on no occasion met in person, in a location where they on no occasion were.

2.3.5 Deceptive Framing

This strings us into a generally, frequent deceptive family of ploy labelled framing tactics. "Framing" aggregates to presenting customers with an imperfect and distorted portrayal of a resolution problem that misinforms their opinion and examination of the challenge thus distorting their process of decision making entirely. To frame a purchase decision or evaluation for a customer, marketers show a narrow style of thinking that centres on just a few features of a more compound evaluation problem, attracts attention to the chosen framing of the marketer and states or suggests that the frame portrayed by the marketer is tangible and certainly the only sensible framing to make use of. Partial framing includes deliberating on some of the important features or utilization aftermath of a product, only evaluating the marketer's product carefully against some of the possibly practical substitutes and characterizing the losses and threats connected with a product in a distorted and partial or imperfect way (Bettman, Luce, & Payne, 1998)

2.4 Deception Screening Devices

There are three methods designed as screening devices for deception in advertising, and they are normative belief method, consumer impression method and expectation screening process but this research is concerned with the consumer impression method discussed below.

2.4.1 Consumer Impression Method

This technique developed by (Gardner, 1975) focuses on consumer impressions. This method is not complex and it takes on commonly used copy- testing processes. It could be executed after a brief period of knowledge building acceptable procedures and questionnaires. In this process, consumers are presented with advertisements and then told to express (making use of well designed and managed procedures) what they thought the advertisements conveyed to them. A few questions would be utterly general while other would be specific. For example, it was theorized that an implicit safety demand had been laid that was not supported by product performance. The data gathered from consumer reactions is judged with the genuine claim and fact of the advertisement to find out if the needed qualifications are realized in order to determine whether the total ad is either non deceptive or deceptive.

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Philosophy

In line with construing the likely deceptive nature of ad campaigns put out by telecommunications companies in Nigeria, an interpretivst research idea or philosophy is assumed. With regards to (Bryman and Bell 2011) which depicts two philosophies "positivist" and "interpretivist", it is stated that these are the major theoretical research outlook or viewpoint. The term Positivism is the method researchers adopt to formulate hypotheses from present theory and examines them to justify laws while Interpretivisim tries to "comprehend distinctions between human behaviour in our position as social factors" (Saunders et al, 2009). The role of this paper as interpretivist is supported by this research where a deceptive advert campaign can simply be realized subjectively and translated in its social context.

3.2 Research Approach

With the near scarcity of prior investigations on the existence of the topic in question along with the nature of the study which is interpretative, an inductive and qualitative research method is adopted. When importance is put on in-depth interpretation of why, what and in which situation this phenomenon may happen, then this method is suitable (Carson et al, 2001). This however allows theories to be formulated from research findings in contrast to the method circled in deductive study (Bryman and Bell, 2011). Nonetheless the inductive method chooses a bendable inclination with no predescribed theory to examine, suggestions generated from prior conceptions (Holloway, 1997).

Information gotten from qualitative approach is seen to clarify the people's feelings and encounters. In terms of this advertising research, a customer or marketers evaluation of an ad campaign is likely to reveal deceptive traits. This process suggests relative values and intrinsic disposition (Beh, 2009) which can or cannot be evaluated by a quantifying means.

In my opinion, researchers sense that human behaviour is too complex to formulate hypotheses, and establishes that the inductive method would be more helpful in this kind of research as it aids the acquisition of more understanding of the enclosed significance of the telecom ad campaign and its influence on the consumers. In addition, emerging theory after data has been gathered happens to be a satisfactory means to increase knowledge that currently exists (Bryman, 2001).

3.3 Data Collection Method

For this research a multiple data gathering technique fits the flexible structure of this qualitative research. Moreover, the grouping gives an affluent picture of the research under study (Carson et al, 2001). Two methods would be used to collect data which are qualitative in-depth interview and participant observation.

3.3.1 In-depth Interviews

Beh, (2009) states that there is no particular order for selecting methods to fit research aims and objectives for interpretative technique. They are probably altered to comply with new data. According to (Kvale, 1996), the aim of this qualitative interview is to recognize subjects of the world from the theme's viewpoint. With reference to this, semi-structured in- depth interviews are conducted in person and via email to obtain more information on the strategic use of deception in telecoms ad campaign and its likely influence on consumers.

Six interviews are carried out by email as a result of work scheduling and geographical location as well as given interviewee's time and ease of delivering responses. Open- ended questions are interchanged to promote in- depth responses, in the course of this, researchers direct messages of assistance, as (Kivits, 2005) identifies the significant interpersonal relationship linking participants and researchers. The last four interviews are conducted in person whereas the researcher notifies the interviewee of the matter to be discussed prior to the scheduled interview so as to freely offer their opinions in a standard manner. This is however to apprehend how the interviewees structure and comprehend subject matters and events (Bryman and bell, 2011). The interview responses are recorded and transcribed for further analysis.

3.3.2 Participant Observation

Participant Observation is defined as a written account emerging from researcher joining a group and observing what happens while making some notes (Bryman and bell, 2011). In this case, it allows the researcher get close enough by being a consumer of the products and services offered by the telecoms company. This sends more information on the products and service provided by the telecoms company in comparison to the information actually spread by the company's promotional campaign.

3.4 Sampling and Study location

In terms of sampling, non-probability purposive sampling is made use of; this is a case whereby participants are selected by the researcher's sole judgment (Bryman and bell, 2011) as there was no age range or specific sex. In this research, the samples targeted are five employees (both call centre and marketing employees) and five customers from one of Nigeria's reputable telecom companies which is Globacom Limited. This selection was made because of the ease of research admittance. Globacom is the second leader in the telecoms industry in Nigeria right after MTN who is at the forefront. Globacom in the year 2011 held about 22% of the market share with 19,886,014 (NCC, 2012).

3.5 Ethical Considerations

Concerning ethical considerations, professionals and consumers are contacted by the researcher for approval to interview by offering scheduling and information. Proper language is utilized all through the study as well as sustaining privacy and obscurity of participants. Recorded Interviews are transcribed with no effort to distort responses.

3.6 Data Analysis

Data is analyzed by using content analysis, in this case two of the company's promotional TV campaign is evaluated with regards to the responses provided by the participants as well as where the researcher holds notes of the observation and thoroughly works around each, giving meaning to particular characteristics in association with the literature provided above. Consumer impression method or technique would however be employed to measure deception in the ad campaign. The latter procedure is interpretation, which is usually centred on the perception of the researchers of the subject matter and data capture. Researches that are interpretive respectively are unique in that a similar research done by another researcher usually presents a different outcome. This is however because of the difference in the expectations and understanding of people towards things, (Beh, 2009) in this case promotional advert campaigns.

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DATA ANALYSIS

4.1: Introduction

Sequel to the literature review and research methodology discussion, the results of the primary research will be elaborated on in this chapter.

4.2: Findings and Analysis

Grounded on the aim of this study and literature review above, this research was carried out using the consumer impression method or technique to measure the level of deception in telecommunication advert campaigns. This method is based on the belief that customers learn to react to stimuli in a reliable and probable way. They are inclined to see what they acquired from previous experiences. So therefore this method focuses on learned consumer impressions (Gardner, 1975). Using Globacom Limited as a case study two specific promotional adverts "Glo text 4 million" and "Recharge and Win" (see appendices) were made available for customers and marketers to watch, after which they were made to answer semi-structured in-depth interview questions based on this research.

The findings are presented based on the deception tactics elaborated on in the literature review. However, the findings from the in-depth interview shed more light on issues in connection with the research objective. It exhibits deception tactics such as omissions, language that misinforms and shuns responsibility, visual and verbal distortion. These are said to be somewhat present in the promotional campaigns presented by Globacom Limited. These are tactics for reaching several goals such as teaching, reading, counselling, persuading and preaching. Although some specific discourse strategies and linguistic devices also contribute to the success in consumer persuasion, hence, they are essential to the procedure. Given that the aim of telecom promotional advertising is customer acquisition and retention by appealing to their, beliefs, desires and dreams, the advertisers make use of discourse styles and linguistic devices which are pleasing, favourable, convincing, catching and able to trick the customers into picking their mobile phones to send text messages in order to participate in promo draws, which in turn costs the customers their airtime and improves the sales of the service operators.

As stated in the Research methodology, ten male and female participants were selected randomly as there was no age range. Five of them were made up of Globacom Limited employees (three marketers and two call centre agents) while the other five were made up of customers. These employee were a tough nut to crack as they were bound by company polices not to give away company information but luckily three marketers were willing to speak, while the customers were more than willing to speak as most of them found it an interesting topic and a chance to speak up regarding the topic in question. Each interview lasted between thirty to thirty-five minutes. Below are the findings.

4.2.1 Language that Misinforms and Shuns Responsibility

Based on observation and according to the responses obtained from participants, this Language misinformation was seen by the majority as exaggerated language, cognitive distortion and euphemism. This discourse approach has to do with the use of pleasant expressions and words to avoid possibly unpleasant things (Brik and Brik, 1997). This is essential so as not to alarm customers who are being convinced to enter into a draw. The Nigerian telecom promotional campaigns mainly include exaggerated language, euphemism and pure vagueness. Subscribers are drained of their credit via the use of such discourse styles like:

"200 millionaires will be made in hundred days, you could be one of the 2 millionaires every day, and you could also win the grand price of 30 million naira or ten million naira every month for three months…to win simply text WIN TO 555 NOW…" Sample 1: (Glo text 4 million season 2, 2010)

"Just recharge N500 or more and you will be one of the 127 lucky people to watch Manchester united live in the UK this season, all expenses paid…there are other fantastic prizes waiting for you, N250, 000 cash prize everyday for four people, that is 1million naira everyday plus 6 million naira worth of free airtime simply recharge N500 or more everyday and you can be a winner…" Sample 2: (Glo Recharge and win, 2010)

There is intentional cognitive distortion via the use of euphemism as seen above, for example, the entire scenario is portrayed positively and attractively as a "draw" instead of gaming or gambling. In addition, writers deliberately are silent about morality by not portraying the package as gambling, which the religious society in Nigeria frowns at. Similarly, in the two samples there is cognitive distortion as the customer is at the outset told that he or she may be the winner of millions, only to be told to text (WIN TO 555 or Recharge N500). Moreover, all these are made to entangle the customers to participate in the "draw".

The expressions found in these ads can also be seen as glittering expressions, these are sentences and phrases that possess good connotations and can aid the customers into agreeing to the invitation for increased patronage and to enter the draw without pure scrutiny. For example, (See sample 1 and 2 above). Expression like those in bold letters are appealing to the Nigerian mind and spins the customers' emotions and persuades them into making more calls or entering the "draw".

Furthermore, a discourse style such as argumentum ad populum which simply means "telling customers what they want to hear" (Cross, 1997) can also be associated with Nigerian promotional ads, (See sample 1 and 2 above). Generally Nigerian people like to be told wonderful things about themselves plus they react kindly to someone who tells them nice things. As seen in this customer's response "They showed one past winner with pictures to prove it. However, they tell you what you need to hear to participate in the competition"

Nigerians want to be told about how to become rich, getting gifts, talking about religion, how to unlock their destiny etc nonetheless, this style of discourse is in fact used to side- track the consumers from analytically thinking about the price of taking on the invitation and keeping away from the game.

From the samples above, marketer's use of the sentence highlighted in bold letters may be considered misleading. The subsequent sentence shows that the word choice is a calculated effort to misinform, as the advertisers do not entirely mean whatever the words connote. Plus expressions such as "…you could also win the grand prize of 30 million naira…", "…you will be one of the 127 lucky people to watch Manchester united…" (Sample 1&2 above) distort customers' cognition. The promo advertisers get more vague and indirect as they decline in attributing or directing the messages to a specific customer. For instance, "you" etc. as utilized in the ad campaign do not point at a particular customer ("you" can refer to anyone). Therefore, the promo advertising agents or the service providers cannot be held accountable for the information in the ad campaign letting customers know that they will win cash sums if they participate.

From observation, there is also the use of non-literal language which refers to a collection of ways that can present interpretive challenges to the customers (Whalen and Pexman, 2009). Distinct from literal language, non- literal language can be seen as not overtly detailed but deliberate. Non - literal language thus includes the utilization of figurative language, particularly in non-literary writings. The utilization of non- literal language can however be connected to ironic purposes, For instance, "200 millionaires will be made in hundred days…" (See sample 1) this utterance is seen as hyperbolic. The service provider or advertising agent makes use of the hyperbole to execute a pragmatic function in order to augment the amount of money up for grabs. Non-literal language is adopted in telecoms promotional campaign in Nigeria so as to establish interpretation challenges to the receiver or customers.

4.2.2 Visual and Verbal Distortion

Most respondents, realized that visual distortions were somewhat present in the sample ads, as they were asked a few questions regarding misinformation plus they were told to mention other telecom ads that they considered to be misleading, for instance in sample 2 below,

Sample 2: Screen Shot (Glo"Recharge and Win" promo, 2010)

This visibly shows employees at the Manchester United stadium but in real sense customers do feel like these pictures have been photoshopped in order to entice those football fanatics to participate in the promotional offer. Wheeler (2002) deliberates on how individuals formulate fake photographic authenticity indications by blending, technical tracing, gap filling, texture replications, matching edges and tone and colour matching. Deceptive originals can be created from the computer itself.

As projected by a consumer, this is not just peculiar to Globacom Limited but to other telecoms service providers in Nigeria. This participant gives a few verbal distortions practiced by a few service providers like MTN and Visa Fone as seen in their catch phrases "passport to reach the world" "everywhere you go" which says one thing but offers another. This participant suggests that this visual and verbal distortion are indeed practiced by a few companies intermittently or it might just be the voice of a dissatisfied customer; however, this dissatisfaction may have been as a result of the customers' frequent observation of deceptive acts employed by companies to capture the minds of customers. The customer believes that whatever a company says they would do, they should do and she believes that MTN and Visa Fone have clearly not stepped up to the plate and this could be considered as verbal distortion while Globacom as visual distortion because the ad above (Sample 2) has been photo shopped to gain the customers attention.

A customer, points out that this could be classified as selective information and not outright deception, also based on another customers response stated here, "…you will be an instant winner if you participate', but it doesn't state that a raffle draw would decide the winners…" this respondent claims that giving customers' incomplete information can be misleading as customers are been told they would become instant winners if they participate but are not been told draws would decide the winners. In line with this research this could also be classified as verbal distortion form the customer's perspective because the respondent claims that the ads do not explicitly state that it is a game of chance and that raffle draws will be done. This is the conclusion derived by a most customer respondents on the Glo text 4 million advert (see appendices).

Another customer selectively looks at distortion from the point of view of the illiterate consumers in the country. He states that the promo terms and conditions and hidden charges, are not explained to customers properly, especially to those that are considered illiterates, they are the customers who want to get rich immediately in order to better their standard of living, however, these service providers or advertising agents take advantage of this, by not properly stating the terms and conditions if one had to participate in the promo. In addition, it is not practical for all information to be given out during an ad campaign especially stating all the necessary terms and conditions that apply to a certain promo. To the marketers it is simply easier to state at the end of every advert that terms and conditions apply as seen in this response from a marketer "I don't agree that there is misinformation; the first advert stated that terms and conditions apply….It is for a prudent person to find out the terms and conditions…"

This marketer believes that there is no form of misrepresentation in the ad campaigns presented (sample 1 &2) as customers are to go in search of terms and conditions bearing in mind that the grassroots customers may not have access to the internet. However, the way the customers interpret adverts are totally different from what the marketers intend. From the viewpoint of the customers, I would say that they regard not stating the exact terms and conditions as verbal distortion.

Furthermore, the future of visual deception may be affected but it is unclear at this stage, the distribution and integration with in the public in general and among software amateurs that carry out these visual manipulations, could terminate the illusion of photographic objectivity. Customers may simply just disbelieve the validity of all visual representations portrayed by marketers because simple persuasion has made it a typical commonsense practice to the point where even customers find themselves doing it. Moreover photography may at present be shunned as a trustworthy witness. Digital technology utilization by customers may damage the photograph's distorted halo of reliability (Boush et al, 2009).

4.2.3 Omissions

From observation and participant responses, a few omissions were pointed out from the sample Globacom ads presented. The participants were asked to say what they felt about the ads in relation to misinformation and most participants mentioned the same thing all round. For instance, a call centre agent stated that "…they never get to mention things like access fees, service rentals and things like that. The actual cost is hardly ever mentioned…"; "…potential participants were not informed duly on the cost of participating in the promo (100 naira per sms)"

From the response above the agent was willing to give information despite the fact that they might be bound by company policy but he made his observations clear. He mentioned that most times access fees, service rentals and actual costs are omitted in adverts; this may be attributed to limited advert space allowed. Moreover, access fees are hidden charges a customer pays to access the telecoms product or service, they are charges not made known to customers, while service rentals are fees paid to actually get a service, they are payable either monthly or weekly depending on the type of product or service. Also he mentioned the fact that the "Glo text 4 million" ad presented was lacking very important information (100 Naira per sms charge) which was duly omitted. However other respondents including customers and a few employees concurred with this observation meanwhile a few disagreed, stating that there was no misinformation in the ads presented. For instance, "I don't agree that there was misinformation…I also do not think this practice is peculiar to the Nigerian telecoms industry or even Nigeria as a country." This marketer strongly disagreed with the idea of misinformation or omission in the ads presented, probably for fear of being sanctioned by the company or it may have been his actual perception. A few consumers also mentioned that terms and conditions were not announced, these terms and conditions are very important so that the customers are aware of what they are about to sign up for. The company actually expects the customers to either go in search of these conditions via the internet or call the call centre for more information but because these conditions are not mentioned the customers do not know and also feel that there are no conditions for entering such promo thus before the customers even know it, they would have entered for the promo being advertised before finding out that there are conditions for winning; this may have negative effects on the customers morale.

According to (Muthukrishnan & Ramaswami, 1999) information may be omitted from a campaign for lots of reasons; a marketer may leave out few information as a deceptive act in order to keep customers from specific information. Most times customers are insensitive to what may be missing from a marketer's campaign such as (warnings, unmentioned features, and options) plus they depend strongly on whatever information is explicitly and clearly conveyed to them. In so doing they are prepared to form judgments based on deliberately incomplete, selective and biased information. Customers may however ignore the issue of how much and which information was deliberately omitted from the campaign, and act on whatever is put forward, even though it is meagre, as enough for formulating evaluations about the product. Moreover when people are highly aware about a product, and when the evaluative context provides reference points that show that a few potentially available and relevant information were omitted, the significance of the omitted information is amplified. In that case, individuals may change their current opinions about a product in the direction of a more "normatively appropriate" assessment.

4.2.4 Other Findings

In addition to these findings there were other discoveries which are peculiar to the objective of this research and they include the customer reaction towards these deceptive ads, how marketers come about strategies for their ad campaign and the participants views on the potential acceptability of deceptive ads in Nigeria. The participants were asked to tell us what their reactions were after coming across a misleading ad, if any. Most respondents including some Globacom employees said they just ignore them while a few went further to spread the word by making his or her discovery known to other customers. Also, regarding Marketers, they were asked to give us an idea of how they come about strategies for their campaigns and let us know if deceptive advertising is often made use of but like I mentioned earlier, most employees were reluctant to mention anything against their company so therefore there was not much information given on this question, however, most said they did not know how strategies were formulated but a few did say that sometimes deceptive tactics may be employed to boost sales because of competition but it is not frequently done as there are laws guarding against that. For instance, a marketer stated that "Sometimes it is needed to promote sales".

Furthermore participants were also asked to state their views on the potential acceptability of deceptive advertising in Nigeria and how tolerable it should be in telecoms ads. Most participants did mention that deceptive advertising will never fully be accepted and tolerated in any way but since most people in Nigeria are desperate to get rich one way or the other; this sets potentials for it to be accepted. In addition the laws on misleading, deceptive and malicious advertising are there but are not being enforced properly.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Introduction

The aim of this research has been to explore and shed light on the marketing phenomenon on the use of strategic deception in telecoms advert campaign in Nigeria. Findings are derived in line with the research objective stated in chapter 1; managerial implications, limitations and suggestions for further research follow thereafter.

5.2 Conclusion

Research findings reveal that deceptive advertising is indeed practiced but is not a major strategy employed by telecoms companies even though there is healthy competition in the industry. This deceptive tactics are strategically used in promotional campaigns to get the attention of customers and to persuade them through their desire, wants and needs to participate in draws. However, for customers to detect a deceptive act, the customers' need to have considerable knowledge of that advertised and this may have negative effects on them, as they may be withdrawn from taking part or entering into promos; viral negative comment may be passed from one customer to the other etc. Moreover, deceptive advertising in conclusion is not entirely a negative technique, it just depends on how it is been used strategically to achieve a company's goal, these strategies have been pointed out in the literature review. Deceptive advertising is indeed appealing for the marketers as they try to beat competition despite the fact that they could be fined if used wrongly and detected by the law.

Furthermore, Globacom has shown a few misleading traits as seen in the findings and this has been beneficial to the company in achieving their aim; they tell Nigerians what they want to hear. They have depicted some deceptive traits which were strategically used. In terms of potentials for acceptability, this will never be acceptable but since Nigerians want to get rich the easiest way they can, then there is potential for success using deceptive advertising. In addition, customers would like most telecommunications adverts to be more transparent for better understanding. As exhibited in the literature review, an insight into the idea of deception has been elaborated on to give individuals an in-depth understanding. I would suggest that some level of exaggeration be tolerated in telecommunication ad campaign because it is a sure way to make sales, gain customers and possibly retain them which is the main aim of the company.

5.3 Managerial Implications and Recommendations

These research findings have implications for the marketing practice. This research has helped broaden our minds to the various types of deception in advertising and also to the discovery of deceptive traits in telecoms advertising in Nigeria which is significantly present. However, this also gives us an insight into the minds of customers and their interpretations of telecoms advertising. These finding combined with prior research confirms the negative and positive effects of deceptive advertising which marketers should pay attention to, in terms of gaining and losing customers and also making profit.

Davis, (1994) states that companies seem to mislead the public in the pursuit for increased profits and sadly ethics may be challenged when it comes to decisions in advertising. If ethics were to perform a huge role in decisions of companies, the frequency of deceptive attempts would reduce. Enforcing ethical policies is the first step to exterminating the perceived acceptability of advertising practices that are deceptive. It is seen that ethical emphasis is reduced as one goes into the marketplace. As a result of this, once people go into an advertising agency they must be shown explicitly, that the integration of ethics into related advertising decisions is an important behaviour. This can be achieved by attaching ethical standards or criteria to adverts; thereby making them transparent, clear, simple and easily understandable as recommended by customers as shown in the interview responses.

The prevention of unethical behaviours and the emphasis of ethical behaviours by regulatory bodies such as National Communications Commission (NCC) also add to the improvement of a working climate or marketplace that is ethical (Davis, 1994). In the long run, deception can be reduced or prevented in advertising by altering academic training or agency management. Training and Management can be altered by improving the influence of ethics on decision making among all professionals in advertising (Davis, 1994). Furthermore, it has been debated that professional and business schools have lectured decision making on the grounds that the social responsibility of a company is to improve profits. Since deceptive advertising has come to be a problem of great concern, improvement in the teachings on its ethics has occurred (Davis, 1994). Therefore if the impact of ethics is improved, decision making processes by advertising managers in future are more likely to refuse claims that are deceptive in advertising (Davis, 1994).

5.4 Limitations of Research

This research has a few limitations and they are the time, sample selection drawbacks and study location. Firstly, time is a limitation as this research had a submission deadline which was to be adhered to. To confirm that the researcher completes this research on time, a scheduled time was arranged.

The second limitation is the sample selection drawbacks, as this research required customers and marketers to be interviewed but marketers were limited in number and were limited in the amount of information they could give out because of the company policies they are bound by but with much persuasion a few were able to speak extensively.

Thirdly is study location which is the last limitation. Globacom Limited was used as the study location as two advert campaigns were analyzed by participants. Having gotten a valid result confirming that strategic deception is not a major strategy used by the company, it still does not speak heavily for other telecoms companies in Nigeria bearing in mind that this is likely done to beat competition. In other words, the researcher was limited to just two advert campaign samples from one company amongst the lot in Nigeria.

5.5 Future Research

There are vital suggestions for further research; firstly, future research could be done using a different research approach, most likely the quantitative research method in order to capture a larger sample size and to examine other telecoms advert campaigns in Nigeria. It could however be a comparative study between two or more telecoms companies, to demonstrate the extent to which deceptive or non-deceptive adverts are used; this investigation could also be done in another country of the researchers' choice.

Secondly, future research could examine this topic from the perspective of the customers only, focusing on the effects deceptive advertising could have on customers as a whole. This would help marketers know how to react to these effects.

Thirdly, future research could also investigate the influence of deceptive advertising on profits versus the company's sales measures to see if it is a worthwhile strategy.