Exploring the Impact of Traditional Communication Channels on Customer Purchase Decision: A Case Study of University Students in Ghana

ARTICLE INFO PurposeMarketers want to know the best advertisement medium which can make their advertising more effective. This study seeks to find a linkage between television advertisement, radio advertisement, newspaper advertisement, and outdoor advertisement towards customers’ purchase decisions in Ghana. Design/MethodologyUsing University students in Ghana as a population, the study employed a simple random sampling approach and collected data from University students in UCC and KNUST. Seven hundred and fifty (750) responses were gathered from participants, but only seven hundred and thirty-two (732) responses were deemed suitable and were adopted to justify the proposed relationships. Data were analyzed using partial least squared built on Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) FindingsThe findings revealed that television advertisement has the greatest impact on customer purchase decision and was statistically significant at p< 0.01. Practical ImplicationsThis finding provides helpful suggestions for advertising professionals, market researchers, existing and emerging organizations to see television advertisements as an opportunity to increase awareness of goods and services as it tends to appeal to viewers’ visual and sound senses, influencing customers’ purchasing decisions and increasing sales of goods and services. Received: January 20, 2021 Revised: February 9 & 11, 2021 Accepted: February 11, 2021 Published: February 12, 2021


Introduction
One critical element contributing to organizations' survival and growth is their ability to make their consumers patronize the product or service they offer. However, the market is saturated with a countless number of products that are competing for existing and potential customers. Due to this reason, many organizations look for means through which they can attract, retain, and satisfy customers in the fastest possible manner. In addition to costs, efficiency, and delivery networks, firms can only boost their revenue and close relationships with consumers through promotional tools. In particular, to have a significant number of consumers aware of its products and services and provide a broad distribution of its goods and services, advertisement is the only successful medium open to businesses. It is a medium of contact that provides consumers with knowledge about products and services globally and helps them make purchase choices on a product or service. Advertising is the widely used system of communication between sellers and buyers. Richards and Curran (2002) see advertising as a paid intermediated way to communicate from a recognized source, intended to influence the one at the receiving end to make a decision immediately or later. (Heath et al., 2006) argued that there are three key reasons to advertise. The first reason is to draw the buyer's interest; second, to produce and expand brand identity and third, pursue the one receiving the advertisement. Mogaji, Czarnecka, and Danbury (2018) regarded advertisement as a mass marketing tool to bring customer knowledge, capture customers' interest, generate perception, and eventually affect their purchasing behavior and buying decisions as advertising can alter people's mindset and behaviors. Advertisers' primary purpose is to influence customers' purchasing behavior (Afzal & Khan, 2015).
Marketers want to know the best advertisement medium which can make their advertising more effective (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). When engaging in an advertisement, corporations become even more mindful of choosing the medium and the type of advertising for goods (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). For years, traditional channels of communication have been used by organizations and have seen growth and progress over time. These outlets include outdoor advertisements, newspapers and magazines, television commercials, and radio advertisements (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). The possibility of accessing the networks mentioned above and their easy usage make traditional contact channels important (Oviedo-Trespalacios, Truelove, Watson, & Hinton, 2019).
In Ghana, modern communication channels are difficult to compete with, making it more difficult for advertisers. Marketers in Ghana do not know the most efficient traditional communication medium to use (Zaglago, 2019). That is why they spend huge sums of money on all traditional communication platforms without having real scientific analysis on which network mostly influence customer purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is important to analyze the elements that influence the good or service's buying decision. Unfortunately, the literature on the relationship is of limited quality, particularly in the Ghanaian context, considering the significance and intensity of this issue. This research will provide advertising professionals, market researchers, existing and emerging indigenous organizations in Ghana with empirical evidence to identify and select the best-suited channels to market their products or services to their target customers. Therefore, this study aims to assess traditional communication channels' effect on consumer purchasing decisions, considering some selected elements of traditional communication networks such as television, radio, newspaper, and outdoor advertisement.

Literature Review Customer Purchase Decision
Customer purchasing decisions are defined, according to (Singh et al., 2014), to mean how people want to invest their resources (time, money, effort) on consumer goods. Customer purchase decisions reflect on what, why, where, when, and how often they patronize, how they evaluate them after they purchase, and how they decide on future purchases. Consumers' purchasing decisions are selecting, purchasing, and utilizing goods and services to meet their needs. There are various mechanisms associated with the customer purchase decision. The customer attempts to figure out what goods he needs to buy for choosing only certain products that offer a higher value. The customer estimates the available money he will pay after selecting the goods. The customer analyzes the prevalent commodity prices and chooses which goods he will afford. This process is illustrated in figure 1. Businesses are set up to fulfill the client's demands and position the customer at the business core.
Companies and advertisers must also anticipate customer buying preferences regarding their goods or services since they are increasingly introduced to new competitive goods by diverse marketing campaigns (Mahalaxmi & Ranjith, 2016).

Television Advertisement
Advertisers see television commercials as a significant component of the television industry and a key source of income, and television acts as an audience distribution system. (Shaikh, Hada, & Shrestha, 2019). Television has been known as the glamour-advertising platform for many years (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). While the number of television viewers is declining, marketers who need to target mass audiences have found television the most favorable medium (Lee, Lee, & Yang, 2017). Domazet, Đokić, and Milovanov (2017). The media managers try to identify the right balance among the viewers' side view of television shows and the target demographic, mainly because there is an already established viewers base for many television. Television has wide scope and exposure that surpasses other media; with its high-frequency volume, millions of viewers can easily be reached with just one advertisement, which comes at a low cost. Mustafa and Al-Abdallah (2020) claimed that television is seen as the most commonly used channel for advertising goods and services that cannot be promoted on radio or print media differently.
Compared to other traditional channels, consumers or viewers have high remembrance of advertised products through television channels and easily get persuaded. An analysis of consumer television viewing linked to real retail sales reveals that greater interaction with the display raises buyers' probability of recalling the commercial during the show (Tarik & Adnan, 2018). As a contact medium, television is characterized by its segmentation capacity; it may target the exact display or the precise broadcasting network depending on the consumer's interests (Shafiq, Haque, Abdullah, & Jan, 2017). Previous studies have linked television advertisements with customer purchase decisions (Anute, Deshmukh, & Pawar;Majeed & Razzak, 2011;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020).

Radio Advertisement
Radio is considered an outstanding communication mode because it is less expensive to operate and easily gets a concentrated audience to listen amid its innovative versatility (Gijsenberg & Nijs, 2019). According to Herget, Schramm, and Breves (2018), in shaping consumer perception of goods, radio commercials play a very important role. In contrast with other media advertisements, remembering a brand name and recollecting a thirty-second promotional note is very strong. Wide groups of corporations prefer radio as a promotional medium to meet narrowly defined aims (Modikeng, 2018). Russo, Valesi, Gallo, Laureanti, and Zito (2020) found out that radio as a contact medium has a dual benefit, thus, wide reach and cost-effectiveness. For radio, advertisers may reach different demographics on the premise that each network has a unique audience and industry (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). Mornings and afternoons are the most common hours for listening to the radio because people will often be in public or private vehicles commuting to and from their work. Within those hours, they are less engaged with work and will listen to the radio (Saleh, 2017). Radio advertisements generate customer excitement that raises purchases in retailers' stores (Wielhouwer, 2020). Radio advertising for store promotions can help the listener learn, make purchasing choices, or even go to the shops with their influenced peers to help them decide on picking items (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). Lankford (2018) observed that radio advertisements cover more sale information and therefore, the level of consumers' purchasing decision may increase based on competitive dynamics and organizational fitness displayed in the advertisement. There are various levels of emotions that can be activated by various radio advertisements, such as warmth, passion, pleasure, and desire. With the limited radio advertisements, motivational pleas for programs, experiential and utilitarian goods are more favored (Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). Sight and mentality may also be affected by radio commercials, which in turn influences customer behavior. The effect on the perception of the customer helps to create consumer behavior with regard to the message disseminated (Mehdi, Paris, & Balasubramanian, 2019). Previous studies have linked radio advertisement with customer purchase decisions and found a significant relationship between the two variables (Ayimey, Awunyo-Vitor, & Gadawusu, 2013;Efstathiou, 2020;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020;SRIVASTAVA, 2017).

Newspaper Advertisement
Newspapers are one of the most common channels of communication and have been in existence for decades. Advertisers' goal is to influence product creation, sales practices, and customer purchasing choices through newspaper advertisements (Tamilselvan & Kumaresan). Mogaji et al. (2018) reported that print media performs a significant role in the growth of other media, with newspapers being the most significant in this industry. Newspaper advertisements hold the greatest volume of information, according to Tao (2020), and are perceived as highly informative compared with other media, including television. Mustafa and Al-Abdallah (2020) have suggested that newspapers' facets help advertisers conveniently display their advertising in the favorite target newspaper with more data, facts, and photographs. Newspaper is very beneficial to the upscale audience. It is also circulated daily (or periodically) on a mass scale with opinion makers, especially adults, to target large demographic sections and offer them the news, entertainment, and advertisement (Saleh, 2017). Malthouse and Calder (2018) argued a link between how individuals respond to a given newspaper and how they respond to advertisements in that newspaper. Previous experiments have correlated newspaper advertisements with consumer purchase decisions and find a substantial association between the two variables. (Ingavale, 2013;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020).

Outdoor Advertisement
Outdoor advertising patterns are becoming more popular, and the use of these channels is regularly growing (Idris, Suhana, Ahmad, & Wong, 2020). Since consumers are involved in multiple tasks during the day, marketers often find it difficult to locate them in particular places or within certain periods, so marketers introduced the billboards that carry messages of advertisement to the target market (Pourhossein & Mahmoudabadi). Outdoor advertisement helps reach the local masses easily, and it is also bring in high levels of exposure, concrete evidence, and effectiveness so that most organizations have adopted its usage (Alalwan, 2018). Outdoor advertisements capture consumers' attention by creating an unforgettable impression (Shafiq et al., 2017). Business Wire (2002) believed that outdoor advertisement is the best medium of commercializing because viewers cannot delete or roll it over if they come across it. Outdoor advertisement tends to dominate the marketing field; with billboards, viewers see numerous advertisements without understanding them (Page, Anesbury, Moshakis, & Grasby, 2018). Many studies have suggested some benefits of utilizing outdoor advertisement. The associated advantages are that it is positioned outdoor, so there is a tendency of getting thousands of audience (especially those nearer to the point of sale), it is geographically mobile, has a higher scope, economically, it is effective, has a higher rate of exposure, and the brand can easily be recognized. Mustafa and Al-Abdallah (2020) considered that billboards significantly draw consumers' minds to the advertised product/service. Outdoor is a twenty-four hours everyday advertisement, with an appropriate size and simple message, a fantastic visual effect. Outdoors lure current and future clients, who will boost the company's revenue (Page et al., 2018). Previous studies have linked outdoor advertisement with customer purchase decisions (Demiri & Zekiri;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020;Okanazu & Madu, 2020;Sah, 2020;Warraich & Ali, 2020).

Methodology Research Design
A research design is a collection of procedures and techniques used to capture and analyze the measurements of factors recognized in a research problem (Halldorsson, Castelijn, & Creswell, 2019). To evaluate classification features, quantify numbers, and construct a predictive pattern to test hypotheses and explain results, the research used quantitative approaches. University students in Ghana are the population for this research, precisely students at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). This research followed a simple random sampling technique where every person was given an equal opportunity to answer the questions asked. The sample size used for the analysis is seven hundred and fifty (750) in the two chosen universities, all of whom were university students.

Data Instrument and Collection
To reach the purpose of the study, the data were gathered from the study population. The research used the questionnaire as a medium to request information from the population. The questionnaire included questions related to the participants' demographic characteristics. There were questions in the second part of the questionnaire that helped examine the variables to be evaluated. Table 1 presents the number of items measured in the study as well as their sources. Participants were called upon to rate the questions based on the 5-point Likert with the scaling pole extending from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Seven hundred fifty (750) online questionnaires were sent to respondents through various digital platforms. Seven hundred thirty-two (732) were deemed fit and accurate, then used for discussion.

Data Analysis and Results
Data was moved from the online survey questionnaire portal to the Microsoft Excel format for easy access and transition to the various research tools. The research involved exploratory and confirmatory studies in confirming the validity of the model. SPSS version 26.0 was used to process descriptive statistics to ascertain the demographic information of all respondents. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis using SmartPLS 3.0 software was used to assess the research model. The measurement model was tested for validity and reliability of the constructs. The structural model was then analyzed in conjunction with the procedures suggested for SEM (Hair Jr, Hult, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2016). A bootstrapping method (5000 resamples) was used to test the path coefficients' significance and loadings (Hair Jr et al., 2016). We also assessed the prediction error degree using PLSpredict as suggested by (Shmueli et al., 2019). Respondents' descriptive statistics revealed that 32.3% of the overall response are males, while females accounted for 67.7%. This finding reveals more females are admitted to University than males in the study area. The findings also revealed that 50.8% of those respondents were 18 to 25 years of age, 21.2% were 26 to 30 years of age, and 17.9% were 31 to 35 years of age, while 10.1% were 36 years of age older. The demographic findings also showed that 61.5% were undergraduate students, 25.9% were master's students, 5.5% were doctoral students (Ph.D.), and 7.1% represented other students. Finally, Table 2 indicates that 72.8% of respondents were single, 20.5% were married, and 6.7% had divorced.  Table 3 displays the values of Factor Loading, Cronbach Alpha, Composite Reliability (CR), and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) after confirmatory factor analysis for all latent constructs. All the item loadings were above the threshold of 0.6 (Chin, Peterson, & Brown, 2008). The Cronbach alpha, which measures the items' internal consistency, surpassed the recommended figure of 0.70 (Hair Jr et al., 2016). Composite reliability values in Table 3 surpassed the threshold value of 0.7, while AVE surpassed the suggested value of 0.5 (Hair Jr et al., 2016). Therefore, the model is good enough for analysis since all the constructs have attained convergent validity, internal reliability, and construct reliability. 1.555 Note: VIF (variance inflation factor); CPD, (Customer Purchase Decision); TAM, (Television Advertisement); RAM, (Radio Advertisement); NAM, (Newspaper Advertisement); OAM, (Outdoor Advertisement).

Assessment of the Measurement Model
We then examine the model for collinearity issues using variance inflation factor (VIF). Table 4 shows the collinearity values of the various constructs assessed using VIF. Table 4 shows VIF values of the individual constructs being lesser than the limit value five (5) suggested by Kim (2019). This result signifies that the model has no collinearity problem (Ahakwa, Yang, Tackie, Odai, & Dartey, 2021). To evaluate the discriminant validity (DV) of the model, Fornell-Larcker's Criterion is first used. The DV test measures the degree to which each variable does not replicate itself in the model's analysis. Table 5 reveals that the individual construct's AVE square root (diagonal values) is higher than its related correlation coefficients, suggesting sufficient DV (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).  Fornell and Larcker (1981) criteria indicates that they do not effectively identify an absence of DV (Henseler, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2015). Henseler et al. (2015) advocated a different approach to measure the DV of the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio of correlation based on the multi-trait-multimethod matrix. This new method was used to assess the DV, and the findings are presented in Table 6. When the HTMT value is larger than the threshold value of 0.85 (Kline, 2011) for the first criterion, then DV problem has occurred. However, as presented in Table 6, all the values were below the HTMT value of 0.85.  To test for the hypothesis of the study, the links between the variables used are established. Television advertisement positively influenced customer purchase decision (β = 0.492, t-statistics = 13.822, p < 0.01), and radio advertisement positively influenced customer purchase decision (β = 0.095, t-statistics = 3.283, p < 0.01). Newspaper advertisement positively influenced customer purchase decision (β = 0.102, t-statistics = 2.750, p < 0.01). Also, outdoor advertisement positively influenced customer purchase decision (β = 0.184, t-statistics = 4.534, p < 0.01). Consequently, all the hypotheses were supported (See Table 7). Furthermore, television advertisement, radio advertisement, newspaper advertisement, and outdoor advertisement explain 53.0% of the total amount of variance in customer purchase decision; thus, R² = 0.530 (See Table 9), which is more than the value of 0.26 proposed by Cohen (1988), and this indicates that the model is substantial. Next, we assessed the effect sizes (f²) employing Cohen's (1988) threshold values of 0.02, 0.15, and 0.35 for small, medium, and large effects, respectively. Table 8 reveals that television advertisement has a significant strong effect on customer purchase decision with an f² value of 0.303, followed by outdoor advertisement with significant medium effects on customer purchase decision with an f² value of 0.041. Also, both newspaper advertisement and radio advertisement had a significant small effect on customer purchase decisions with an f² value of 0.014 and 0.015, respectively. The predictive sample reuse technique (Q²), in addition to the size effect of the R² and f², can effectively demonstrate the relevancy of the model (Chin et al., 2008). The study acquired its Q² through cross-validated redundancy techniques. A Q² value bigger than zero (0) shows that the model has predictive relevance; however, a Q² value below 0 means the model's predictive relevance lacks. Therefore, our Q² value of 0.388 in table 9 suggested that the model had acceptable predictive relevance. Following the recommended guideline in assessing the prediction error degree (Shmueli et al., 2019), evaluation of the PLS-SEM Q² predict values for all the indicators of the measurement model was done. Table  10 reveals that all the Q² predict values are greater than zero (0), indicating a highly symmetrical distribution of prediction errors. We then compared the naive LM benchmark (Table 10)

Discussion
The study aimed to evaluate the impact of traditional communication channels on customer buying decisions. The findings disclosed that television advertisements have a significant positive influence on customer purchase decisions. It is comparable to some past studies that found television advertisements an essential determinant of customer purchase decisions (Anute et al.;Majeed & Razzak, 2011;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). With the above evidence, marketers need to pay more attention to television advertisement channels when promoting their products or services in Ghana because it has the most significant effect on customer purchase decisions, according to this study. The visuals and sounds of television help advertisers appeal to diverse senses simultaneously-if the visual doesn't attract you, the music may attract you in one way or the other. Therefore, television advertisement's content must be attractive, educative, interesting, and entertaining, thus influencing the customer purchasing decision. Marketers must see television advertisements as an opportunity to increase awareness of goods and services, thus increasing sales.
Also, the findings disclosed that outdoor advertisement has a significant positive influence on customer purchase decisions. More fantastic support was reported in several prior studies, which found outdoor advertisement critical in influencing customer purchase decision (Demiri & Zekiri;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020;Okanazu & Madu, 2020;Sah, 2020;Warraich & Ali, 2020). Organizations or advertisers must carefully choose an outdoor commercial's content as it plays a crucial role in persuading customers purchasing decisions. Advertisers should mount billboard designs that contain messages that are smart, short, clear, straightforward, pleasant, visible, and often visual to customers. This would impact the customer's purchase decision due to the easy access to outdoor commercials mounted by the roadside and the fact that outdoor advertisements are widely surrounding the consumers' environment all the time.
Moreover, this paper's results show that newspaper advertisement substantially impacts customer purchase decisions and is consistent with previous studies (Ingavale, 2013;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020). This finding means that the newspaper advertisement is a critical factor that affects customer's purchase decisions. Therefore, this result's practical implication suggests that marketers or organizations use newspapers in promoting products or services, but the content of the commercial in newspapers must be informative.
The findings disclosed that radio advertisement significantly and positively impacts customer purchase decision. This finding is similar to previous researchers' findings who also revealed that radio advertisement significantly affects customer purchase decisions (Ayimey et al., 2013;Efstathiou, 2020;Mustafa & Al-Abdallah, 2020;SRIVASTAVA, 2017). The findings indicate that radio advertisement can be seen as a fundamental indicator of customer purchase decisions. Therefore, marketers need to concentrate on radio advertisements in promoting goods and services because of their wide reach and affordability.

Conclusion
On the grounds of this study, advertisers need to count on television advertisements when promoting products and services; careful picking of the content of television advertisements as they perform a crucial role in affecting customer buying choices. Television advertisements should have a substantial share of any commercial budget. However, all communication networks should cooperate and function to produce the needed outcomes. This study revealed that advertisements that customers can see with their eyes have a greater effect on their buying decision; because both television and outdoor commercials significantly impact consumers' purchasing decisions.

Limitation and Future Direction
The research did not involve people outside Ghana. Future research may also be performed to address the limitations described by expanding the research to other settings and countries to achieve an extensive generalization of the analysis. It will be a fascinating area to perform research that focuses on television as a contact medium independently to determine why it has the greatest impact on consumers' buying decisions.
Funding: This research received no external funding.