Sponsored Facebook Advertisements as Advertising Platforms for Clothing Business Owners in Nairobi’s Central Business District

Abstract

This study seeks to investigate how Sponsored Facebook Advertisements assist clothing business owners in targeting a wider market online than normal posts do. The study’s main objective was to find out how clothing business owners use Sponsored Facebook Advertisements with the three specific objectives being: to find out the reasons why clothing business owners use Sponsored Facebook advertisements, to identify the messages used by clothing business owners while advertising through sponsored Facebook Advertisements and to investigate the types of sponsored Facebook advertisements commonly used by clothing business owners. A qualitative research method was used informed by the DRIP model theory which stands for Differentiate, Reinforce, Inform and Persuade. A sample of 15 interviewees consisting of clothing business owners within the Nairobi Central Business District on three streets, Kenyatta Avenue, Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street, were selected for this study. To triangulate, four Key Informants were also interviewed. The participants of the study were identified through snowballing and convenience sampling methods. Data was thereafter thematically analysed and presented in a narrative format. The main findings of the study were, that sponsored Facebook advertisements built brand awareness, enabled simultaneous communication between a businessman and the online customers, increased customer base, they were cheaper to use and very convenient. The study’s main conclusion was that a business owner needed to use sponsored Facebook advertisements strategically to get maximum benefits of them as long as they were used to complement the type of business run. The study recommended that a larger spectrum of businesses need to be targeted under the same study to give a wholesome opinion from the entire business community in Kenya.