The Influence of Online Advertising on the Consumer Behavior of Smartphone Customers

Purpose: The fundamental purpose of the study was to determine which domain of the online advertising significantly influence consumer buying behavior. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a quantitative non-experimental research design utilizing correlational technique. The survey was conducted at Tagum City, Davao del Norte, Philippines. A total of 365 customers participated in this study. Findings: Results revealed that online advertising is much evident as perceived by the customers. On the other hand, the consumer buying behavior towards purchasing smartphones is much observed. The statistical result further revealed that there was a significant relationship between online advertising and consumer buying behavior of smartphone customers. Research limitations/implications: There are only two variables considered in this paper: Online advertising and consumer buying behavior; Intervening variables are not considered and the sample for this study is 365 using a random sampling method. Practical implications: Among the five indicators, stimulation, brand recall, and necessity were found to have significantly predicted consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones. Originality/value: This paper is a collaborative effort of the researchers to understand consumer behavior of smartphone customers relative to online advertising.


I. INTRODUCTION
Consumer's obsession about the smartphones is in rapid increase which made their manner of purchasing these handheld devices put into the center of attention Ifeanyichukwu, C.D., Ayodele., & Adetola, (2016). The consumers' decision-making process is significant to their buying behavior especially that this behavior must not be influenced by a lot of occurring factors which may lead them into either a bad or satisfactory buying experience. For marketers, it is their primary goal to make consumers satisfied on their purchases.
On the other hand, the web is getting more advanced compared to traditional advertising methods because of its reach and upscale structure. Compared to traditional advertising methods, internet advertising allows the consumers to view the content they wished to watch. In this study, the term online advertising pertains to advertisements shown in google, youtube, social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, and Instagram. As pointed out by (Opeodu OI, 2017) advertising using various internet channels has a crucial role in influencing the choice of customers and today, the internet is widely used to share content, information, and even ideas Shrivastava, (2014). Accordingly, a smart choice of determining where and what to advertise is extremely important for shop owners (Singh, 2014) as this will have an adverse impact on their business.
In the locality, the choice of determining which online platform to advertise remains a conundrum. This is due to the fact that predicting consumer's behavior especially on buying smartphones is relatively challenging ISSN : 2597-4785 (ONLINE) ISSN : 2597-4750 (PRINTED) The Influence of Online Advertising on the Consumer Behavior of Smartphone Customers Jocelyn S. Emotin, Alicia N. Sulayon Page │ 258 and the online advertising strategy appears to be a costly decision to make by store managers. Thus, the researchers were prompted to conduct a thorough investigation on this subject matter in order to fully understand how online advertising influenced customer's buying behavior.

A. Objectives
This study aimed to determine which domain of the online advertising that significantly influence the consumer buying behavior. Furthermore, it sought to determine the level of online advertising and consumer buying behavior.

B. Hypotheses
The following research hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. 1. There is no significant relationship between online advertising and consumer-buying behavior in purchasing smartphones. 2. There is no domain of the online advertising significantly influence consumer-buying behavior.

II. METHODOLOGY
This study employed a quantitative non-experimental design utilizing causal effect technique to be able to give description to the possible existing relationship between two identified variables as well as determining the direction and magnitude of such relationship, if there is. The descriptive correlation method was deemed appropriate and accurate in this study as it seeks to find the relationship between the independent and dependent variables Gravetter, (2004).

A. Locale and Sampling
Through a random sampling method, this research was conducted in the first class City and capital of Davao del Norte Province, Tagum City (7.4472° N, 125.8093° E) Philippines. A total of 365 customers participated in this research. Table 1 shows the level of customer's perception regarding online advertising in terms of necessity, pleasure, dominance, brand recall and stimulation. The overall mean is 4.06 which is described as high and with the standard deviation of 0.515. This means that their perception on online advertising is much evident. Considering the views of (Sharma, P., Sivakumaran, B. and Marshall, 2010) they found out that the variables in online advertising is useful in enticing the customers in purchasing the product Thus, online commercials have critical effect on the buyer's consumer behavior and directly affect their decisions ; (Schiffman et al., 2012). This is a good basis for online businesses to advance their online advertising campaigns. On the same way, (Awan & Shahid, 2015) argued that online advertising fulfills the information gap that the consumers need in relation to the advertised item as (Kotler, 2006) said that in the absence of advertising, consumers may not be aware of the product and its potential to satisfy their needs and desires.

B. Consumer Buying Behavior
As shown in table 2, the level of consumer buying behavior among consumers garnered an overall mean of 4.05 which is described as high. As stated by (Darley et al., 2010) and (Peter et al., 1999) the customer choice of purchasing a product is influenced by two components, internal and external. There are individual (internal) factors influencing buying behaviors which include demographics, consumer information, observation, learning, inspiration, identity, and ways of life. For instance, a buyer may perceive the need to purchase a tablet when there is a necessity for it and it appears to more comfortable to use compared to desktop PC Martins & Terblanche, (2003) On the other hand, external information sources may also affect the purchasing decisions. For example, the personal experiences of friends or family and even co-workers may affect the buying behavior (Ma et al., 2014) Furthermore, in selecting a movie to watch, one may choose to depend on the referral of a friend or family member while others prefer online reviews and rating (information search) which is a common attitude for consumers who are particular to details. Marketing experts collect enough data to study and make use of it to predict the behavior of the customers in relation to their future offerings Tzokas et al., (2004).  Table 3 presents the five indicators which showed the relationship between online advertising and consumer buying behavior. The r-value of necessity and consumer buying behavior is 0.534 shows a positive correlation (28.52%), followed by the r-value of pleasure and consumer buying behavior of 0.480 which also shows positive correlation (23.04%). The r-value of dominance and consumer buying behavior is 0.565 imply a positive correlation (31.92%). While the r-value of brand recall and consumer buying behavior is 0.606 shows a positive correlation (36.72%). Lastly, the r-value of stimulation and consumer buying behavior is 0.620 shows a positive correlation (38.44%). All the indicators of online advertising (necessity, pleasure, dominance, brand recall and stimulation) appears to have significant relationship on the consumer buying behavior. Taking insights from the study done by (Tzokas et al., 2004) they contended that web-based or online advertisement is key determinants of purchasing products just like mobile phones. Similarly, another study demonstrated that the utilization of various online media advertising channels and buyer's purchasing decision/behavior have a solid relationship. The research also revealed that consumer behavior is somehow shaped by online promotions Adelaar et al., (2003) Table 4 shows the regression analysis on the level of online advertising and the level of consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones. The table shows an f-value of 62.259 and p-value of 0.000 which is less than the 0.05 level of significance. Thus, there are domains in online advertising that significantly influences the consumer buying behavior of purchasing smartphones.

D. Regression Analysis on Online Advertising and Consumer Buying Behavior
The indicators necessity, brand recall and stimulation has a beta of 0.190, 0.260 and 0.290 respectively and a corresponding p-value of 0.000 which is less than the level of significance at 0.05. This means that necessity, brand recall and stimulation has a significant influence to the level of consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphone. The indicator stimulation has the highest beta of 0.290 which means that among the three indicators, stimulation most significantly influence the level of consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones. The regression analysis on the influence of the domains of online advertising towards consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphone revealed that stimulation is the strongest domain. This means that for the consumer to display a positive buying behavior, smartphone companies are encouraged to use online advertising channels to stimulate the consumers to buy the product. This happens when online advertising give motivation, excitement and pleasurable stimulation to buy the product.
In the same manner, the use of online advertising on the aspect of brand recall and necessity have also an influence to the consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphone which implies that brands of mobile phones as well as the necessity of the consumer to buy mobile phones should be considered in any online advertisement initiative because online advertising performs as the interaction point between the consumer and company from which they buy the products Tzokas et al., (2004). It is important to note that the presence of online promotional advertising has been growing significantly on the internet and it attracts a well-educated community which motivate and drive he the consumers for switching from one brand to another. Another effective way of stimulating consumer response is the use of celebrity endorsement in an online media advertisement ; (Hassan et al., 2015), as it attract the customers especially a society dominated by fan clubs initiated by millennial consumers.

CONCLUSION
The findings of this study revealed that online advertising and consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones are of high levels. A significant relationship between online advertising and consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones was evident. Further, the results showed that necessity, pleasure, dominance, brand recall and stimulation have significant relationship on consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphones. Lastly, among the five indicators, stimulation, brand recall and necessity were found to have significantly predicts consumer buying behavior in purchasing smartphone.

A. Implications
The use of online advertising is a good avenue for cellphone shops to attract and eventually encourage the consumers to buy smartphones. Online advertising is advantageous to business owners because it has an extensive coverage. Also, it has a large capacity to store and disseminate information because online community always find a necessity to share thousands of pages and links which are readily available in a single click. Online advertising has strong interaction with human sensory in real-time and instant attachment to a