YOUTH AND MOBILE ADVERTISEMENTS: AN ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER BUYING BEHAVIOUR IN PAKISTAN

Abstract

The total number of mobile phone users across the globe has increased from 4 to 4.77 billion in the past 5 years and is expected to cross 5 billion by the end of 2019. Like the rest of the world, Pakistan has seen an increase in cellular subscribers; going from 88 to 139 million in the last 10 years; majority between the age of 21 and 30 years. The focus of this research is to study the impact of mobile phone advertisements on consumers’ buying behavior. The increasing competition has lead mobile companies to invest humongous amounts of money into creating beguiling advertisements; from having national and international celebrity endorsements to heart-touching storylines to groovy music beats. A questionnaire was devised to help gather data about the topic under consideration; based on random probability sampling, the youth enrolled in undergraduate programs in private/public sector universities of Lahore, Pakistan was targeted. The AIDA model served as the basis of analyzing the collected stats. The results indicate that despite the lavishly created advertisements, users are more inclined to buy phones of a certain brand. Also, the advertisements are not playing much role in influencing buying behavior of mobile phone consumers and they are, still, more concerned about the features of the phone rather than the attractiveness of the advertising gimmicks.