Impact of Online Advertising on University Students’ Buying Behavior:A Study on University of Chittagong

Bangladesh is one of the emerging e-markets of South Asia. It has a rapidly growing 26.7% Internet penetration rate compared to India's 28.3% and Pakistan's 14.6%. As the number of internet users is increasing significantly, there is a great opportunity for e-marketers. Businessmen find online advertising as one of the convincing marketing tools since the marginal cost of each online advertisement is very low. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of online advertising on university students' buying behavior and their overall attitude toward online advertising. Quantitative research approach has been adapted in order to achieve the purpose of the study. The data were collected from July to September 2015 through primary source. A questionnaire based survey was conducted from the sample population of 150 respondents through Convenient and snowball sampling method from Chittagong University, Bangladesh. The results depict that a predominant part of respondents has positive attitude toward online advertising. The study further shows that respondents take help by online advertisements for their purchase decision. The findings of this study may help advertisers, Bangladeshi and multinational marketers operating in Bangladesh to recognize the possibility and significance of online advertising. This study suggests for conducting more research on different facets of online advertising and buying behavior in Bangladesh context.