PROFESSOR JAYASHANKAR TELANGANA STATE

AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF HOME

SCIENCE, SAIFABAD, HYDERABAD

Consumer issues and challenges

FRM 505

SUBMITTED TO SUBMITTED BY

Dr.E. ShirinHimaBindu S.Shivani

Assistant professor HHM/2020-04

Dept of RMCS
 IMPACT OF MISLEADING ADVERTISEMNTS ON CONSUMER
PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOUR

Abstract:
Advertising plays a vital role in any country. Quality of the product offered by this sector is
crucial for survival and for the economy. This study aims at determining the deceptive
advertising provided by different hair care products. It takes into account the purchasing
behaviour of different people, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The results show that deceptive
advertising has most impact on consumer buying behaviour through deception. Though there
are many laws they are not efficient to stop the deceptive advertising.

Introduction:
Marketers try to attract and persuade consumers about the product or services offered through
marketing in order to gain a competitive advantage; sometimes marketers, advertisers, or
business organisations advertise their products or services with false and misleading
information in order to gain a competitive advantage. Consumers are misled by information
that leads to misinterpretation, erroneous belief, and misleading information. Nonetheless, the
false or misleading information is used in marketing to catch people's attention and encourage
them to buy something. Customers buying the goods is ultimately helpful to the company and
leads to more income and entity. This type of marketing effort takes advantage of customers'
lack of understanding and their desire to buy.

There are numerous studies that have been undertaken on customers' perception & attitude
towards product or brand. This study shows the impact of false advertising on consumer
perception towards the hair care products.

Customers are bombarded with advertisements every day, from the moment they wake up
until they go to bed, via newspapers, television, billboards, hoardings, radio, mobile apps,
smartphone notifications, and social media. Customers will struggle to determine the validity
and accuracy of the information presented in all of these adverts.

Objectives:

1.To know customers' perceptions and reactions to deceptive advertisements.

2. To understand impact of deceptive ads consumer buying behaviour.

Review of literature:

Wright and Metres, (1974) described that particularly deception in advertising is prevailed in
marketing activities of today’s businesses. Kotler and Armstrong (2001) supported this
argument and mentioned that false claims are perceived to be unethical marketing practices

According to Nagler (1993), Deceptive advertising is characterised as a company

misrepresenting to the consumer the promoted product's features and consequently the
expected utility from utilising the product. Deceptive advertising, according to the American
Marketing Association (AMA), is advertising that is intended to mislead consumers by
making misleading claims, failing to give complete disclosure, or a combination of both.

According to Boyd et al. (2002) a difference is regularly made among excessive and
occasional involvement buying, implying that during exercise the real buying interest may be
much less or extra steady with this model, relying at the consumer`s perceived buying risks.
High or low diploma of involvement is likewise a query of consumer experience;
merchandise bought for the primary time in general, require extra involvement than regularly
bought merchandise.

Xie and Boush (2011) in their study states that when consumers are conscious of deceptive
advertising and of its procedures, they may underachieve, depending upon the emotional
rank, that impact how they observe material, and the immediate surroundings where the claim
is presented. These factors are grouped as “situational contexts” (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981).

Research Design: Descriptive and exploratory research design was used to meet the
objective of the study.

Data Collection: To meet the objective a questionnaire in Google form is framed and data
were collected from 80 respondents, the data was collected from all age groups of people.

Sampling Method: A purposive sampling method has been used and data collected from
85 customers of hair care products.

Data Analysis: After the survey analysis of data is done through Microsoft excel.
Hypothesis:

H1: Deceptive advertisements do not have a significant relationship with the buying
behaviour of hair products.

H2: Deceptive advertisements do not have significant impact on the buying behaviour of hair
care products.

Research and findings:

1. DEMOGRAPHICS

1.Gender:

Gender
male
20%

female
80%

It shows that 80% respondents are female and 20% are male

2.Age in years:

age
40 and above
6%
26-40
24%

16-25
70%

The findings reveal that 70% respondents are of the age of 16-25 years, 24% are
of the age of 26-40 and 6% are of age 40 and above.
3.Educational qualification:

education
others
doctoral 7% undergraduate
13% 30%
post graduate
10%

graduate
40%

4.Occupation:

occupation
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
t ee ee h er
den oy oy a rc ak
s tu pl pl se e
m
m em b
e jo m
vt te ho
go iva
pr

5.Purchase of product:

purchase of product

under-
graduate
43%

graduate
57%
The data revealed that from total respondents only 80% respondents purchase hair care products on
themselves, therefore the remaining 20% does not purchase the product so they are excluded.

6.Type of hair products they usually use

products

hair oil

conditioner

shampoo

hair colour

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

The collected data shows that mostly purchased and used hair care products are hair oil and shampoo
while the customers for hair color and conditioner were lower; therefore it can be said that the
customers should be more conscious about information & advertisement related to hair oil and
shampoo.

Perception on misleading advertisements

Q.no Scale Percentage

7 1 14
2 44
3 27
4 8
5 7
8 1 22
2 54
 3 19
4 3
5 1
9 1 26
2 36
3 22
4 14
5 1
10 1 9
2 28
3 47
4 13
5 2

The collected data indicates that 58% of the customers believe that advertisements provide reliable
information, 76% customers are of the opinion that sometimes advertisements presents false or
misrepresentation of information to catch customers attention, 62% customers are loyal to the hair
care brand they use.

11.Customers react or doesn’t react on deceptive advertisements

percentage

doesn’t
have impact
38%

have impact
62%

The data clearly indicates that only 62% of the respondents seemed to have impact on, this shows that
these 38% customers don’t have impact.
12.Customer’s reaction towards misleading advertisements

percentage
Switch the brand 55

Complaint to the company 17

Give Product back 19

Stop using product 8

I rate product online & spread information on 32

social media

From this we can see that most people switch the brand when they feel it is misleading

13.Reasons for not having impact on consumer

Doesnt have impact

I believe that is Company's strategy to attract more customers 44

I feel that advertisements are for entertainment 34

I am not using such product 15

Because I never use particular brand 12

0 5 101520253035404550

34% people feel that ads are for entertainment and 44% believe that it is companies’
strategies.

Discussion:

The study's main goal is to learn about customers' perceptions and reactions to deceptive
commercials. To accomplish this, a questionnaire was created in Google Forms and data was
collected from 85 customers of hair care products using a purposive sampling method. As a
result of the data analysis, it was discovered that:

➢ Majority of (80% - 84%) consumers uses hair oil and shampoo in hair care products,
➢ More than half of (54%) the customers believe that advertisements provide reliable
information

➢ Majority of 58% of the customers believe that advertisements provide reliable

information,

76% customers are of the opinion that sometimes advertisements present false or
misrepresentation of information to catch customers attention,

62% customers are loyal to the hair care brand they use.

➢ Some (38%) customers don’t have impact because most of them are of the opinion that it
is the company’s strategy to attract more customers.

➢ findings says that 34% people feel that ads are for entertainment and 44% believe that it is
companies’ strategies

Conclusion:

Based on the findings, it is proposed that the government raise customer knowledge about
deceptive advertisements and encourage them to file complaints. According to the findings,
marketers and businesses should place a greater emphasis on hair oil and shampoo in the hair
care product area. According to the study, some customers are not loyal to a brand or product;
however, if they believe or identify an advertisement to be deceptive, they will stop using the
product and switch brands; they will also downgrade the rating on digital platforms and
spread negative word of mouth, affecting many customers.

This can impact the company's reputation and income. It can be argued that if a customer
perceives or recognises dishonest advertising, he or she will cease using the product or brand
and spread unfavourable word of mouth, potentially harming the company's reputation and
revenue.

Bibliography:

Fathy, D., Elsharnouby, T. H., & Aish, E. A. (2016). Deception in advertising revisited:

Antecedents and differences in perception across consumer groups. International

Journal of Business and Emerging Markets, 8(4), 403-425.
Gaber, H., Labib, A., & Salem, K. (2018). The Effect of Marketing Deception On Consumer

Buying Decision On Facebook. An Empirical Study On University Students In Libya.

European Journal of Business and Innovation Research, 6(3), 12-18.

Heyman, S. (2010). What makes an advertisement deceptive?. Retrieved from

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Makes-an-AdvertisementDeceptive?&id=5587937

Iqbal, S., & Siddiqui, D. A. (2019). The Impact of Deceptive Advertising on Customer

Loyalty: A case of Telecommunication Industry in Karachi, Pakistan. International

Journal of Industrial Marketing, 4(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijim.v4i1.14607

Deceptive Advertising and Purchase Behaviour of University Students: A Study on Skin-

Care Products in Bangladesh. (2017). Global Journals Inc., 17(2). Retrieved from

https://globaljournals.org/GJMBR_Volume17/8-Deceptive-Advertising-and-

Purchase.pdf