The Effectiveness of Marketing Communication Channels: The Case of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange

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Date

2011-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Marketing without price information is intangible. Ethiopia Commodity Exchange has been striving to disseminate market information for buyers and sellers for the last two years. The study embodied questions aimed at assessing the effectiveness of the media channels used for market information by Ethiopia Commodity Exchange. In order to seek answers to these questions both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies were employed through questionnaire and in-depth interview. These data were then analyzed thematically in order to sieve out the information that did more appropriately tally with the inquiry at hand. It was found out that television, mobile phone and the radio medium constituted the most widely used array of media genres. All the same, lack of clarity, precision, and consistency of messages impeded the extent to which the customers comprehended the messages. Moreover, literacy levels and language issues were also among factors that did affect the effectiveness of messages communicated because of the fact that farmers were not educated and could not fathom messages presented in Amharic as much as they should. Also, the use of new media such as the Internet which could be thought of extremely complicated did not prove to be effective as it needs a higher level of literacy as well as basic computer skills. While the use of multi-channel communication is a commendable endeavor, factors pointed out above need to be considered to attain higher level of effectiveness such as by toning down the messages in a way that fits the level of these customers.

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Marketing Communication

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