A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award
of Degree of Master of Business Administration (MBA-Corporate Management) of
Mzumbe University.
With the rapid growth in technology, the internet is becoming an important one stop point
for consumers in finding most of their needs. Many consumers are online every day for
their personal work, but do they notice the ads, banners displayed on that web page and
most important their recall value. The current study investigated the effectiveness of
internet advertising on consumer behavior by conducting a case study of Moshi
Cooperative University Students. The study sought to determine the effectiveness of
internet advertising on reach and creation of awareness; to establish the reliability of
internet advertising through recall; and to determine the relationship between internet
advertising and purchase decision. The study used a case study research design. The
target population was the Moshi Cooperative University students. The study used
stratified sampling technique to select 100 study respondents. The primary data was
collected using questionnaires. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data
while the quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics using SPSS.
Regression and Correlation analysis was used to show the relationships among the
variables. The data was presented through percentages, means, standard deviations and
frequencies. The study found that internet advertising was effective on reach and creation
of awareness due to diverse usage, and established that its reliability as an advertising
media was low compared to TV. Internet advertising has significant relationship with
purchase decision of the consumers and therefore is a key determinant in influencing
consumer behavior. The study determined that there is a positive relationship between
internet advertising and consumer purchase decision and further recommends that
companies should conduct a market research on the different markets in various countries
to ensure that the internet advertising initiatives being implemented suits the targeted
markets to improve product purchases.