A

Project
on
Effects of Different Methods of Advertising on College
Students
Submitted towards the completion of the course 'Project 1', Semester
IV
of
Bachelors of Business Administration
of
Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies, Pune

Batch 2019-2022
Under the supervision of
Prof. Sabiha Fazalbhoy

Submitted by:
Shaurya Parnami (PRN: 19020621326)
Tushar Jain (PRN: 19020621373)

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to thank our mentor and faculty supervisor, Professor Sabiha
Fazalbhoy for her constant guidance and help towards the completion of this
project. We have worked on this project and collected and gathered information
completely on our own. The information we have gathered are from sources of
primary data in the form of questionnaire and secondary data in the form of
Papers.

2
 DECLARATION BY THE STUDENTS

We, the undersigned solemnly declare that the report of the project work entitled
"Effects of Different Methods of Advertising on College Students", is based on
our own work carried out under the supervision of Professor Sabiha Fazalbhoy.

We assert that the statements made and conclusions drawn are an outcome of
the project work. We further declare that to the best of our knowledge and belief
that the project is not a copy or an adaptation/ improvisation of any existing
project. Due mention has been made of various works which have been referred
to in this study and required permissions have been taken for the same. This
Project report is being submitted towards fulfillment of the course Project 1.

(Signature of the Student)

Name of the Student: Shaurya Parnami
Roll No.: 2055
PRN: 19020621326
Div.: SY-A
Batch: 2019-2022

(Signature of the Student)

Name of the Student: Tushar Jain
Roll No.: 2061
PRN: 19020621373
Div.: SY-A
Batch: 2019-2022

3
 CERTIFICATE BY FACULTY SUPERVISOR

This to certify that the report of the project submitted is the outcome of the experiential project
work entitled "Effects of Different Methods of Advertising on College Students" carried out by
Shaurya Parnami bearing Roll No. 2055 of Batch 2019-2022 and Tushar Jain bearing Roll No.
2061 of Batch 2019-2022 under my guidance and supervision for the fulfillment of the Course-
Project 1.

To the best of my knowledge, the report:

i. Embodies the work of the candidate him/herself/themselves.

ii. Has duly been completed,
iii. Is up to the desired standard for the purpose of which it is submitted.

(Signature of the Faculty)

Name:
Designation:

4
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
20 years ago, no one would’ve thought that the Internet will become as widespread as it has
today. From bulky computers that needed Dial-Up Internet and Broadband Connection to
Mobile Devices and Smart Watches which operate on wireless networks, connectivity through
the Internet has come a long way.

As technology is improving day by day, access to the internet has started to become easier and
cheaper. The onset of 4G, and in the near future 5G, has essentially put the world in our pockets.
Information is now readily available at the mere touch of a button. Therefore, it is extremely
important for companies to use online advertising for not only recognizing but capturing the
interest of their target market. Through a statistical survey, this study aims to find out which
method of advertising, mainly online and offline, is more effective when it comes to college
students.

In India, youth comprises a large portion of the population and this number is increasing day
by day. Thanks to improvements in Human Resource Development, Education is becoming
more and more accessible which has led to a tremendous growth in the number of students who
opt for Higher Education. This gives rise to a huge market which is largely untapped. For
Organizations which cater to this target market, our research can prove to be extremely helpful.

The potential for selling products targeting College Students is huge in India and our study aims
to ascertain which advertising is most effective for the same.

Our study surveys a sample of 100 College Students in order to find out the impact of different
methods of advertising which are Online and Offline. The sample population was provided with
a questionnaire asking them about the various advertising methods which they encounter every
day. The questionnaire was distributed with the help of Google Forms as it provides an easy
way to collect data and also helps analyze it.

On further analysis of the data, it was discovered that, the College Students were influenced
more by Online Advertising when compared to any other form.

Online advertising has a huge scope, especially in developing nations like India. Online
Advertising not only provides more information in a faster manner, it is also beneficial to
Companies as it has a wider reach, relatively lower costs and widely used by their target market.

5
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr. No. Page Content

Number
1 2 Acknowledgment
2 3 Declaration by Student
3 4 Certificate by Faculty Supervisor
4 5 Executive Summary
5 6 Table of contents
6 7 Introduction & Objective of Study
7 8-10 Literature Review & Research Gap
8 11-12 Research Methodology
9 13 Advertising – Meaning and Definition
9.1 13 Types of Advertising
9.2 14 Features of Advertising
9.3 14-15 Demographics and Advertising
10 16-25 Data Analysis and Interpretation
11 26 Major Findings from Primary Data
12 26 Conclusion
13 27 Suggestions for Future Studies
14 28 References

6
 INTRODUCTION

In today's online world, it is very important for organizations to not only have a social media
presence but also have relevant and informative online advertising. For a company with college
students as its major target market, this is especially important, since most college students have
more exposure to online resources such as social media or online search engines. Furthermore,
they have limited access to more conventional and traditional offline resources, such as TV or
radio. It is extremely crucial, therefore, that these companies make use of the right online
resources. This study aims to clarify the preferences of a sample of college students from
throughout India, as well as evaluate whether there is actually a scope in advertising online to
college students. The conclusions drawn from this research hope to provide useful insight to
marketers wishing to advertise to college students.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1. Find out different methods of advertising available.

2. Ascertain the most effective form of Advertising between Online and Offline which
influence the buying behaviour of College Students.

3. To find out if Social Media is an effective method of Advertising for College Students.

7
 LITERATURE REVIEW

Title of the Name Name & Geography/ Framework Gaps No. Of Citations
Paper/Book/ of the Indexing of Region of Adopted & Addressed Received as per
Journal/Artic Authors Journal/Book Study Major Findings /Identified Google Scholar
le /Book of the Study as on June 2020
Chapter

Survey of Ann E. Journal of The United The Respondents The Study 729
Internet User’s Schlosser Interactive States of felt that Internet aimed to
Attitude , Sharon Marketing America Advertising to be find out the
towards Internet Shavitt, more informative general
Advertising Alaina trustworthy when perception
Kanser, compared to towards
1999 General Internet
Advertising. Advertising

The Effect of Alejandr SSRN The United Concluded that Conducted a 6

the Internet on o Electronic States of Internet reduces Survey
Advertising Zentner, Journal America advertising using 10
Expenditures: 2010 expenditure on both Years of
An Empirical print and Data of
Analysis Using Television Media. more than
a Panel of 80
Countries (A) Countries to
identify how
the increase
in the use of
the Internet
has reduced
the
advertising
cost for
Companies.

8
Effectiveness of G. International India Out of all types of Found the 15
Online Anusha, Journal of advertisement, opinion of
Advertising 2016 Research Online general
Advertisement is public about
preferred the most effectivenes
and out of these, s of Online
video Advertising
advertisement is
majorly preferred.

Role of Social Zheng Tourism Australia This study confirms To find out 3197
Media in Online Xiang Management the importance the extent to
Travel and Social Media plays which social
Information Ulrike in the Online media
Search Gretze, Tourism Domain. appears in
2010 search
engines
when
searching
for travel.

The Online David S Journal of The United The Author put The Study 479
Advertising Evans, Economic States of forward his ideas aims to
Study: 2009 Perspectives America and posed a few determine
Economic questions about the the
Evolution and Privacy Aspect of differences
Privacy Online Advertising. between
online and
offline
advertising
on the basis
of Costs,
Growth,
Privacy

Impact of MD Int. J. Reviews Bangladesh This research The study -

Online Asaduzz and Research in concluded that, in aimed to
Advertising on aman, Social Sci. the University find out and
University 2015 Students’ overall understand
Students’ attitude towards the impact

9
 Buying impact of online of Online
Behavior: A ads in Bangladesh Advertising
Study on showed a positive on the
University of reaction towards buying
Chittagong online behavior of
advertisement. a sample of
students
from
University
of
Chittagong,
Bangladesh.

Table 7.1: Review of Literature

RESEARCH GAP

India has one of the largest youth population in the world, out of which, college students
comprise a major proportion. Our study aims to ascertain the impact of the various methods of
advertising available to an organization. This data is extremely helpful for organizations
wishing to sell to products targeted towards College Students. This study could prove to be
helpful when selling products such as Student Notebooks/Laptops, Stationary, Luggage,
Airline Tickets etcetera. In today’s Digital World, online Advertisement dominates other
traditional advertising media such as Television, Radio and Newspapers and our study aims to
investigate to what extent it affects College Students’ Buying Behavior.

10
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Methodology refers to those specific techniques or procedures which are used to
identify select process and analyse information on a specific subject. Research Methodology
section of a Research Paper is used to familiarise the reader with the various tools, procedures
and processes by with the Author(s) plan to conduct their research on a given topic. This
includes identifying the type of Research Design, Methods of Data Collection and limitations
of the research, if any. This provides important information to the reader in a summarised
way.

1. Research Objective -
A. Find out different methods of advertising available.
B. Ascertain the most effective form of Advertising between Online and
Offline which influence the buying behaviour of College Students.
C. To find out if Social Media is an effective method of Advertising for
College Students.

2. Research Type - Analysis of Available Data

3. Research Method -

A. Qualitative: Research is carried out tot ascertain preference or liking,

i.e., qualities of the data.
B. Quantitative: To figure out percentages of sample population which
preferred one option over another, using numbers.

4. Research Design – Exploratory: This is a Research Design about a research problem

when there are only a few studies to refer to. The focus is on gaining familiarity with
the subject.

5. Data Processing - Data is being processed by Google Forms. This would help us in
easier analysis of raw data.

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6. Data Collection –

A. Primary Data: Primary Data in the form of Survey

B. Secondary Data: In form of Literature Review.

7. Data Collection Tool - Questionnaire, in the form of Google Form and Analysis of
existing Scholarly Articles.

8. Proposed Outcome - To find the most effective marketing tool for college students.

9. Practical Implementation - Companies can utilize this data to choose a marketing tool
that
suits their needs accordingly.

10. Research Limitation - Lack of response from population, Data is highly homogenous,
highly time consuming.

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 ADVERTISING – MEANING AND DEFINITIONS

Advertisement is the process of spreading product information among the potential buyers
through a public medium in order to maximize sales. Such a public medium includes, among
others, internet, newspapers, magazines, television and radio. Different authors have defined
advertising, in the following ways.

According to Richard Buskirk, “Advertising is a paid form of non-personal presentation of

ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor.”

According to William J. Stanton, “Advertising consists of all the activities involves in

presenting to a group, a non-personal, oral or visual, openly sponsored message regarding
disseminated through one or more media and is paid for by an identified sponsor.”

The above definitions clearly reveal the nature of advertisement. This is a powerful element of
the promotion mix. Essentially advertising means spreading of information about the
characteristics of the product to the prospective customers with a view to sell the product or
increase the sale volume.

TYPES OF ADVERTISING

As stated in the Literature Review, there are many different types of Advertising available to
the seller. These include, Internet Advertising, TV or Radio, Print media. Some more methods
available to the seller are -

1. Guerilla advertising (Direct customer participation or interaction with the consumers)

2. Product Placement (displaying the logo of a brand or talking about the brand and/or its
benefits in movies or TV shows)
3. OOH (out-of-home) Advertising such as Billboards or posters.

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 FEATURES OF ADVERTISING

There are 4 main features of advertising, as follows:

1. It is a Paid Form of Communication: Advertisements appear in newspapers, magazines,

television or cinema screens because the advertiser has purchased some space or time
to communicate information to the prospective customers.
2. It is a Non-Personal Presentation of Message: There is usually no direct contact with the
customers. It is a non- personal form of presenting products and promoting ideas and it
supports personal selling. It simplifies the task of sales-force by creating awareness in
the minds of potential customers.
3. Speedy and Mass Communication: Advertising is a speedy medium of communication.
Besides being speedy, its operational area is very vast. In other words, it reaches millions
of people simultaneously. Taking the example of television, millions of people are
targeted with just one ad, and hence it has a mass reach.
4. Advertisement is Issued by an Identified Sponsor: Another feature of advertising is that
its sponsor can be identified. Whenever we come across an advertisement, its sponsor
is easily recognized. Obviously, its sponsor can be either the seller or the producer of
that product or service. If due to some reason it is difficult to identify the sponsor, then
that information cannot be called advertising. It will be called propaganda or publicity.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND ADVERTISING

Demographic segmentation refers to market segmentation according to age, race, religion,

gender, family size, ethnicity, income, and education. Demographics can be segmented into
several markets to help an organization target its consumers more accurately. This plays a huge
role in sales. For example, for an organization making toys, the main demographic would be
children, under the age of 10-11.

Traditionally, demographics provides consumer information based on factors that can include,
but are not limited to:

 Age and generation groups

 Sex, gender or sexual orientation

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  Nationality
 Race
 Educational level
 Occupation
 Household income
 Marital status
 Number of children

Organizations occasionally carry out studies or surveys to assess viability of a new product or
an existing product in a new market. When Starbucks first arrived in India, for example, they
were targeting customers ideally in their 20s and early 30s, with medium to high income, and
preferably in large metros, such as Mumbai and Gurgaon.

Such demographics may be acquired through direct survey, although that rarely happens, since
it is not cost effective. Organizations generally get their data through secondary sources such
as government census data, or in more recent times, customer data is collected by people who
accept cookies on their browser. This is especially helpful when an organization is selling
online. Focus groups are another great way of getting such information, as it combines the
usefulness of survey with the cost effectiveness of sampling.

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 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Upon carrying out the actual survey, we received 103 responses from college students in various
disciplines from colleges across India and the conclusion has been drawn on the basis of data
collected from the same.

The data received is presented as follows:

Fig. 10.1: Data for Question 1.

More than 90% of our respondents use Instagram most frequently as compared to Social Media
Applications like Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat.

We assume this is because Instagram is perceived as more of a Youngster App when compared
to Facebook and Twitter.

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 Fig. 10.2: Data for Question 2.

As seen in the chart, majority of the respondents chose to click on advertisements occasionally,
which means that there is a huge potential for online advertisement.

Less than 20% of the respondents never click on Advertisements. This means that companies
do not need to improve a lot, however, there is still some scope for improvement.

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 Fig. 10.3: Data for Question 3.

More than 70% of the respondents prefer newspapers for their print media needs. Therefore,
Companies need to focus more on Newspapers for their advertisement compared to Journals
and Magazines.

However, Journals and Newspapers still hold a significant share and companies need to work
on increasing engagement for these two media platforms.

Companies need to identify the Journals and Magazines that are read by College Students
frequently to maximize their advertising potential. This can be done by further research.

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 Fig. 10.4: Data for Question 4.

Less than 20% College Students selected Television as their most-used platform. We assume
this is because very few College Students have access to Televisions as they are not available
in hostels. No students selected Radio as their most used platform as they are not used in today’s
world as they once were.

Meanwhile, a whopping 80% respondents prefer YouTube. This might be because YouTube
can be accessed with Phones and Laptops, devices which are readily available with College
Students.

For a Company targeting College Students, advertising on YouTube should be a top priority.

YouTube is the second most used Search Engine after Google.

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 Fig. 10.5: Data for Question 5.

Slightly more than half of the respondents have subscribed to an Online

Magazine/Journal/Newspaper. If the Companies have additional resources to spend on such
types of online advertisements, they may opt to do so.

However, since the respondents are basically split between the 2 choices, a company targeting
college students may opt for alternate forms of advertising which are more effective and
efficient.

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 Fig. 10.6: Data for Question 6.

Out of the respondents who have subscribed to an online publication, more than 50% have
subscribed to a newspaper. While around 30% have subscribed to magazines. Thus, for a
company targeting College Students, it would be better to allocate their resources to Online
Newspapers and Magazines.

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 Fig. 10.7: Data for Question 7.

Since people have started spending more and more time online, companies have a higher chance
of converting advertisements to sales.

Therefore, companies should allocate more of their resources to advertising online because the
ongoing COVID-19 crisis is not likely to end very soon.

Instagram in particular seems to be getting increased usage which makes it a good platform for
advertising.

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 Fig. 10.8: Data for Question 8.

Almost 90% of the respondents have never paid money to remove advertisements which means
majority of them do not mind advertisements in regards to the cost of removing these ads. It is
therefore a good idea to advertise on these platforms.

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 Fig. 10.9: Data for Question 9.

Even though almost 20% of the respondents have never purchased a product or a service. This
should not deter companies from advertising on social media since more than a combined total
of more than 80% have purchased a product or a service after seeing an advertisement online.

Therefore, there is a huge potential for sales by advertising on Social Media.

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 Fig. 10.10: Data for Question 10.

Even though a majority of the respondents have bought a product or a service at least once after
seeing an Advertisement, still drawing from the previous question, sales conversion is better
after advertising using online means.

Fig. 10.11: Data for Question 11.

Companies targeting college students can use both offline and online means, but more resources
should be allocated towards online advertising as it is more effective, has a higher reach to
college students and is less costly, thus making it more efficient.

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 MAJOR FINDINGS FROM PRIMARY DATA

The survey indicates that College Students prefer online forms of advertising such as Social
Media and YouTube over more conventional offline media such as Television, Radio,
Newspapers, Magazines. Furthermore, out of the sample population, the College Students who
still use conventional media are more inclined towards online publications of these Journals and
Newspapers when compared to the offline versions.

Students are spending more and more time online, which means, there is a huge potential and
need for companies to start advertising online.

CONCLUSION

The study titled “Effects of Different Methods of Advertising on College Students” reveals that
Online Advertising particularly Instagram and YouTube, and to some extent online versions of
Newspapers and Magazines have proven to be quite effective at converting sales. Online
Adverting provides organizations with many benefits such as Low Cost per Head, a Wider
Reach and higher sales conversion rates. The growing prevalence of internet in our everyday
life, particularly those of students, has provided organizations with the opportunity to be more
creative with their Marketing Approach while simultaneously reaching more people than ever.
An Organizations wishing to sell products aimed at college students should invest more
resources into online advertisement campaigns.

A survey conducted by G. Anusha in Trivandrum in 2016 supports the conclusion that Online
Advertising is more effective.

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 SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE STUDIES

Our study has helped us gain a lot of insight on the impact of various methods of online
advertising, however, there are still a few questions that remain unanswered. Further studies
need to be carried out in order to accurately understand and even predict the buying behavior
of College Students.

Further Studies can be carried out to find answers to questions such as Why College Students
prefer online media over Offline Media, Why College Students prefer Instagram over any other
Social Media Application and Scope of YouTube as an Advertising Tool.

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 REFERENCES

Schlosser, A. E., Shavitt, S., & Kanfer, A. (1999). Survey of Internet users' attitudes toward
Internet advertising. Journal of interactive marketing, 13(3), 34-54.

Zentner, A. (2010). The effect of the Internet on advertising expenditures: An empirical analysis
using a panel of countries. Available at SSRN 1792789.

Anusha, G. (2016). Effectiveness of online advertising. International Journal of Research–

Granthaalayah, 4(3), 14-21.

Xiang, Z., & Gretzel, U. (2010). Role of social media in online travel information
search. Tourism management, 31(2), 179-188.

Evans, D. S. (2009). The online advertising industry: Economics, evolution, and

privacy. Journal of economic perspectives, 23(3), 37-60.

Asaduzzaman, M. (2015). Impact of Online Advertising on University Students’ Buying

Behavior: A study on University of Chittagong. Int. J. Reviews and Research in Social Sci, 3(4),
163-168.

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