African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658

Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

FEAR APPEAL AND CONSUMER CHOICE IN FOOD AND

BEVERAGE FIRMS IN THE SOUTH-SOUTH NIGERIA

Udeze, Aniemeka Samuel

Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt

Owuso, Stephen Monima

Rivers State University, Port Harcourt

Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of Fear appeal on customer choice of
Food and Beverage firms in South-south Nigeria. The study adopted the the cross-sectional
survey research design. The population of this study consists of all the customers of the food
and beverage firms in south-south Nigeria. This indicates that the study has an infinite
population. The Toppan formula was used to determine an appropriate sample size for the
study. This method was adopted to generate an appropriate sample size for the study from
which generalization can be made on the entire population because the population is large.
Thus, three hundred and seventy-eight (378) customers of the food and beverage firms
constituted the respondents of the study. The hypotheses were tested using the Pearson
Moment Correlation Coefficient with the aid of the Statistical Tool for Social Science (SPSS
version 22). The study revealed that Fear appeal does have a positive and significant effect
on customer choice in the food and beverage firms in South-South Nigeria. The study thus
recommends that managers of food and beverage firms should take advantage of the potency
of fear appeal to convince their target audience as to the dangers of not using their
particular brand of food and beverage products so as to avoid health complication
occasioned by consuming an inferior quality of brand.

Keywords: Fear Appeal, Customer loyalty, word of mouth customer choice

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

1. Introduction
The average consumers in the south–south region of Nigeria also, are faced with several
factors that affect the choices they make among the assortment of products available to them.
These factors can range from the knowledge the consumers have of the brands and the
understanding of company offerings, based on previous interactions that the consumershave
had with the different food and beverages brands and companies offering the same. There are
so many other factors that can influence the choice the consumer make. So it becomes very
difficult for firms to accurately predict the product that consumers may consider to buy and
the quantities to be purchased at every given time. Moreover, no marketer can say with
certainty why consumers chose the brand that they buy and disregard other brands. Earlier
scholars like Schiffman and Kanuk (2009) argued that “Consumers seek benefits to meet
their needs; marketers therefore have to present benefits in their products in order to appeal to
customers more effectively.” It follows therefore, that firms in the food and beverage firms in
the south-south region of Nigerian are saddled with the task of communicating to the
prospective and actual customers the benefits that can sway them to favour their brand of
products. It is an established fact that no organization can survive without the constant
patronage of consumers who buy their products.

Scholars such as (Abah & Abah, 2015; Abdullahi, 2014; and Sindhya 2013) are of the view
that “advertising is a tool of marketing for communicating ideas and information about goods
and services to an identified group, which employs paid space or time in the media or uses
another communication vehicle to carry its message.” Advertising appeal is “related to the
use of people (or special characters) who are believed to represent the product or better
known as advertising stars (endorsers)”. Moreover, Padhy (2011) is of the view that “the
selection of the right endorser will have an impact on the product, such as trust in the product,
up to purchase intention.”

Scholars are in consensus that advertising appeal is the main message in advertising messages
thus, they argue that the purpose of advertising is not to only convey message and idea, but to
also persuade, and convince the target audience in order to achieve desired objective of
selling a product or service. Akbari (2015) described “advertising appeal as the attempt to
encourage the consumer to buy a particular, good/service, or be favorably disposed to the
goods/service of a particular organization using creative approaches. The emphasis of this
definition is on the attempt to encourage the target audience to take note of the
product/service. The competition is also growing fierce by the days and the advancement in
technology has enhanced the communication process among business to consumers
effectively also adding to the cost of production. Studies do indicate that “in order to
publicize the brands on offer, organizations deploy the use of advertising to create awareness,
educate on distinct features and benefits, and facilitate the creation of positive brand images”
(Kemp et al., 2012; Shimp & Andrews., 2013).
Several attempts have been made by scholars to examine the influence of advertising
messages and its impact on the consumer. Suk et al. (2012) examined the influence of price
presentation on consumer choice. While, Ahmed (2014) investigated the impact of television
advertising on consumer purchase intentions. This study seeks to examine the relationship
between fear appeal and consumer choice of food and beverage firms in the south-south
region of Nigeria.

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

2. Study Variable and Research Framework

Fundamentally, study variable act as a guide to any study. This study has two main variables:
fear appeal (predictor variable) which was treated unidemsionally, and consumer choice
(criterion variable) which has customer loyalty and word of mouth as its measures. This is
depicted in the figure 1.1 below.

Consumer Choice

Customer
Loyalty
Fear Appeal
Word of Mouth

Fig 1.1: Conceptual Framework for Fear Appeal and Consumer Choice
Source: Desk Research 2021

The following null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study:

H01: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and word of mouth
communication in food and beverage firms.
H02: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and sales growth in the food
and beverage firms.
3. Concept of Fear Appeal
Tannenbaum et al. (2015) defined “fear appeals as persuasive messages that attempt to arouse
fear by emphasizing the potential danger and harm that will befall individuals if they do not
adopt the messages’ recommendation.” This description highlights subtly but strongly, the
emphasis placed on danger to the individual who refuses to heed the advice of the message.
An earlier scholar Witte (1992) defined fear appeals as “persuasive messages that arouse fear
by depicting a personally relevant and significant threat, followed by a description of feasible
recommendations for deterring the threat”. This description highlights the idea is that “fear
appeals rely on a threat to an individual’s well-being which motivates him towards actions
that are recommended by the sender of the message.” Meanwhile, Xu et al. (2015) argues that
“fear appeals has the power to persuade audiences.” Here the authors simple argue that the
appeal of fear is strong enough to trigger action on the part of the audience. LaTour et al.
(1996) cited in Williams (2011) argues that “Fear appeals are one of the most frequently used
motivators to get people to help themselves.” Williams (2011) also, stated that fear appeals
“are built on fear”. But, Carrera et al. (2010) found that negative emotional appeals do not
always help to reduce risky behavior. They found that a mixed sequential (negative-positive)

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

emotional message generated lower post-message discomfort than the negative one. This
view is supported by Peter et al. (2001) argues that fear appeals produce negative effects on
the audience. However, streams of studies have shown that “fear appeals have been used
successfully to increase advertising effect on consumer interest, recall, persuasiveness, and
behavior change.”
Consumer Choice
Hassan and Rajabpour (2017) described consumer choice as “the decisions that consumers
make with regard to products and services.” This description implies that when we examine
consumer choice we determine how consumers decide which products or services to purchase
or to consume over time. Hantula and Wells (2013) are of the view that choice behavior is
also part of consumer behavior. The concept of consumer choice emerged from the enquiry
as the option or choices that consumer will have to make. These choices arose because of the
alternative product and services which meant they have to select between option of products
or services available to them.
Customer loyalty has been described by Rai and Medha (2013) as a behavioural concept that
entails the repeat buying of products or services measured as the series or share of purchases,
referral, magnitude of relationships or all of the above mingled together. The emphasis of this
description is on the repeat element that loyal customer will continue to buy and even refer
friend to buy same product. Ganiyu et al. (2012) stated that “loyal customers often are willing
to pay the premium prices, recommend company product and services to friends. Also, the
likely hood for the loyal customers to switch is low, they are also likely to purchase product
offer by the same company.” Bose and Rao (2011) surmised that in the business context
loyalty entails the customer’s commitment and resolve to continuously do business with a
particular organization which in turn translate to repeat purchase of the goods and services of
that organization
Fear Appeal and Consumer Choice
Tannenbaum et al. (2015) conducted a study titled “appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of
Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories.” The purpose of the study was to test predictions
from a large number of theories, the majority of which have never been tested meta-
analytically until now. Studies were included “if they contained a treatment group exposed to
a fear appeal, a valid comparison group, a manipulation of depicted fear, a measure of
attitudes, intentions, or behaviors concerning the targeted risk or recommended solution, and
adequate statistics to calculate effect sizes.” The meta-analysis included 127 articles. The
study revealed that:
There is a positive effect of fear appeals on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Also, the
study concluded that:
(a) fear appeals are effective at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviors;
(b) there are very few circumstances under which they are not effective; and
(c) there are no identified circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable
outcomes.
Terblache-Smit and Terblache (2010) carried out a study on the effect of fear appeal HIV-
AIDs social marketing behavior: Evaluating the importance of market segmentation. The
purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between fear appeal and social
behavior of a segment of the audience.” The study showed that fear appeals can help to

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

increase consumers’ interest in and recall of the advertising and can increase the persuasion
effect of advertisements.
Johnston and Warkentin, (2010) carried out a study on fear appeals and information security
behavior: An empirical study. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship
between fear appeals and information security. The study revealed that “the severity of the
threat, perceived risk, efficiency of adopting the avoidance action, and ability to perform the
suggested action are factors that will influence the persuasiveness of fear appeal.
In the light of the foregoing, the study hypothesizes that:
H01: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and word of mouth
communication in food and beverage firms.
H02: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and sales growth in the food
and beverage firms.
Methodology
This study on fear appeal and consumer choice adopted the cross sectional survey research
design. Data were collected through questionnaire drawn using a Likert’s five-point scale,
ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. The predictor variable fear appeal was
treated as a unidimensional variable while, the criterion variable consumer choice has
customer loyalty and word of mouth as its measures. The population of this study was made
up of all customers of the food and beverage manufacturing firms in the south-south region of
Nigeria. This indicates that the study has an infinite population. The Toppan formula was
used to determine an appropriate sample size for the study, because the population is large.
Thus, three hundred and seventy-eight (378) customers of the food and beverage firms
constituted the respondents of the study. The data generated from the survey was analyzed
and interpreted into meaningful information using descriptive statistics. The hypotheses were
tested using the Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient with the aid of the Statistical Tool
for Social Science (SPSS version 22).

Result and Discussion

Table 1: Description on Levels of Relationship between Variables
Ranges of r with positive and negative Descriptive level relationship of r Sign values
+ .7 to 1.0 Very Strong

+ .6 to .69 Strong

+ .4 to .59 Moderate

+ .1 to .39 Weak

Source: Mangiofico, (2016)

The positive (+) sign in the values of r implies a direct/positive relationship, whereas the
negative (-) of r implies an indirect/negative or inverse relationship between the two
variables.
This section continues by testing the hypotheses raised in section one of this study with the
aim of determining the strength and direction of the relationship (if any) amongst the
predictor variables and the criterion variables.

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Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

Table 2: Pearson correlation analysis depicting the relationship between fear appeal
and customerloyalty
Variables 1 Statistics Fearappeal Customer loyalty
Fear appeal Pearson’s 1.000 903**
Correlation
Sig(2-tailed) .000

N 295 295

Customer loyalty Pearson’s

Correlation 903** 1.000
Sig(2-tailed) .000
N 295 295
**correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed).

H01: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and customer loyalty.

The result in Table 1 illustrates the Pearson’s correlation analysis by deploying the statistical
package for social science (SPSS) version 22.0. The attendant p-value of the relationship
between fear appeal (antecedent of advertising appeal), and customer loyalty (antecedent of
consumer choice) is revealed to be significant (where p=0.000) which is less than the 0.05.
The results from the Pearson’s correlation analysis r are estimated at 903**. Thus, we reject
the null hypothesis and accept the alternate hypothesis. The Pearson’s r estimated of 903**.
Indicates that fear appeal has a positive and significant associate with customer loyalty, this
value shows a very strong and significant relationship between fear appeal and customer
loyalty amongst the food and beverage firms in south-south region of Nigeria. The positive
sign of the correlation coefficient indicates that the construct fear appeal and customer loyalty
are direct/positively associated, implying, that an increase in fear appeal message would
trigger a corresponding increase in customer loyalty in the firms.

Table 3: Correlation analysis depicting the relationship between fear appeal and
word of mouth
Variables 1 Statistics FearAppeal Word of Mouth
Fear Appeal Pearson’s 1.000 906**
Correlation
Sig(2-tailed) .000
N 295 295

Word of Mouth Pearson’s

Correlation 906** 1.000
Sig(2-tailed) .000
N 295 295
**correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed).
H02: There is no significant relationship between fear appeal and word of mouth

Table 3 reveals the Pearson’s correlation analysis by deploying the statistical package for
social science (SPSS) version 22.0. The attendant p-value of the relationship between fear
appeal (antecedent of advertising appeal), and word of mouth (antecedent of consumer
choice) was discovered to be significant (where p=0.000), which is less than the 0.05. The

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

Pearson’s r is estimated at 906** thus, we therefore, reject the null hypothesis and we accept
the alternative hypothesis. The Pearson’s r estimated of .906** indicates that a very strong
relationship exists between fear appeal and word of mouth amongst the food and beverage
firms. The positive sign of the correlation coefficient indicates that the construct fear appeal
and word of mouth are direct/positively associated, implying, that an increase in fear appeal
messages would trigger a corresponding increase in word of mouth for the firms.

The result from the study indicates that fear appeal relates positively with both customer
loyalty and word of mouth (antecedents of consumer choice). Also the result is found to be
statistically significant. These findings are in line with the position of Rai and Medha (2013)
who assert that customer loyalty to be a behavioural concept that entails the repeat in buying
of products or services measured as the series or share of purchases, referral, magnitude of
relationships or all of the above mingled together. This view also validates the claim of Ming-
Chang et al. (2016) when they discovered that fear appeal is used to persuade audience by
arousing fear towards a threat and to their welfare and thus inspire them to obey the
suggestion after which they become loyal if satisfied with the product after use. Similarly,
Eze et al. (2014) found that the influence from friends and relatives were about 2.33 time
more important as a factor that influence consumer choice. This view is consistent with the
persuasive theory that argues that the key element of persuasive theory is to shift the person’s
preconceived notion to the intended notion of the informant. Hence, word of mouth is one
very strong tool that can sway the notion of friends and relatives which marketing managers
of food and beverage firms must deploy regularly.

Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, the study affirms the alternate hypothesis and concludes that fear appeal does
have positive influence on consumer choice, particularly in the food and beverage firms in
south-south Nigeria. This is because fear appeal acts as an external stimulus that creates a
perception in message receivers that they are susceptible to some negative situation or
outcome. “Fear appeal has the power to persuade audiences.” Here the authors simply argued
that the appeal of fear is strong enough to trigger action on the part of the audience. The study
thus recommends that managers of food and beverage firms should take advantage of the
potency of fear appeal to convince their target audience as to the dangers of not using their
particular brand of food and beverage products so as to avoid health complication occasioned
by consuming an inferior quality of brand.

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 African Journal of Business and Economic Development | ISSN: 2782-7658
Vol. 1, Issue 11 (November, 2021) | www.ijaar.org

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