MYTHICAL TELEVISION ADVERTISING: MISMATCH BETWEEN TARGET AUDIENCE, VIEWING HABITS AND PROFILE

Abstract

Consumer resentment is the major confront for marketers in the twenty first century. In this milieu, television advertising dominates over other media in the advertising scenario, for its powerful effect on both sound and motion in delivering marketers message to the target audience. The massive expenditure on television advertising poses the question whether this investment is effective in the light of target audience exposure. Thus, the objective of this study was to explore whether the advertisers have correctly targeted the target audience, their television watching habits and it’s correlation with different target audience profiles. A representative product service bundle was investigated with their relative media schedules for the study. The sample was limited to television audience in the Colombo district with a sample size of 372. A closed ended questionnaire was administered to collect primary data. According to the empirical results, advertisers have correctly targeted the segments television viewing time and relevant programs; It was possible to get the exposure by children, rural and unemployed segments as they have a regular media habit but not with the other segments such as urban and employed segments. In conclusion, it is apparent that there is un-corresponding practices of targeting the television audience with their television habits and the target audience profile.

Keywords: Advertising, Target Audience, Media Habits, Profile