AN APPRAISAL OF SALES PROMOTION ON THE CHOICE OF
MOBILE PHONE OPERATORS
(A
Case Study of MTN Nigeria Plc)
ABSTRACT
The focus of this research
work is An Appraisal of Sales Promotion on the Choice of Mobile Phone (a case
study of MTN Nigeria plc). The scholarly research work gives insight into the
views of various authors as concerned with the project subject matter an
appraisal of sales promotion onthe
choice of mobile phone. The study gives an in-depth historical background of
the company under review. In the researcher’s effort and desire to achieve his
objective, the researcher has chosen to use the descriptive research method. The
research population consists of 24 people of MTN Ahmedu Bellow way branch
Kaduna. A sample size of twelve were randomly chosen for this research both for
the management staff, and customers respectively. The following hypothesis were
formulated for the research: The null hypothesis (Ho). The alternative
hypothesis (Hi). Ho: The null hypothesis: sales promotion does not have
a significant influence on consumer buying behaviour. Hi: The
alternative hypothesis: sales promotion has a significant influence on consumer
buying behaviour. The data collected were presented and analyzed based on the
findings, it was discovered that sales promotion has a significant impact on
consumer behaviour. Useful recommendations were made by the researcher that
sales promotion should not be treated as an emergency tool but be treated as an
integral part of the company marketing activities and that sales promotion
should be adequately planned and prepared through putting necessary measures
that would yield tangible results to the organization.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Title
page – – – – – – – – – i
Declaration – – – – – – – – – ii
Approval
page- – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication
– – – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgement – – – – – – – – v
Abstract- – – – – – – – – – vi
Table
of content – – – – – – – – viii
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 Background of the Study – – – – – – 1
1.2
Statement of the problem – – – – – – – 3
1.3
Objectives of the Study- – – – – – 3
1.4
Significance of the Study – – – – – – 4
1.5
Research question – – – – – – – 4
1.6
Scope of the study – – – – – – – 4
1.7
Limitation of the Study – – – – – – 5
1.8
Definition of terminologies – – – – – – 5
CHAPTER
TWO
2.0 Introduction – – – – – – – – 8
2.1 Definition of marketing Information System – – – – 14
2.2 Objectives of marketing information system – – – – 15
2.3 Functions of marketing information system – – – – 17
2.4 Limitations of marketing information system – – – – 18
2.5 Sales promotion – – – –
– – 20
2.6 Contribution of marketing information system in Nigeria- – – 22
CHAPTER
THREE
3.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 26
3.2 Area of study- – – – – – – – 26
3.3 Research design – – – – – – 26
3.4 Population and sample of the study- – – — – 26
3.5 Source of data collection – – – – – 27
3.6 Method of data Collection – – – – – – 28
3.7 Method of presenting and Analyzing data – – – – 28
CHAPTER FOUR – Data
Presentation, Analysis & Interpretation
4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – 29
4.2 Characteristics of respondents – – – – 29
4.3 Data Presentation – – – – – – 32
4.4 Summary of the findings- – – – – – 36
4.3 Discussion of finding – – – – – – 36
CHAPTER
FIVE – Summary of findings, Conclusion & Recommendations
5.1 Summary- – – – – – – 38
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – 39
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – 40
Bibliography- – – – – – – – 42
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
INTRODUCTION
The success of
any firm largely depends on customers patronage, for any firm to push its
products to the consumers effectively, there is the need to carryout
promotional campaigns to communicate with the ultimate consumers without
promotion, customers may not be aware of the existence of the particular
product, hence patronage may remain very low. Many promotional tools are used
to communicate with the consumers but sales promotion tends to be the most
effective of all due to the extra incentive it provides to consumers.
Alexandra
(1960) viewed sales promotion“as a marketing activity other than personal
selling, advertising, public and public relations that induces and stimulates
consumers purchase and dealers effectiveness”. The importance of sales
promotion campaigns are seen at the
point of purchase where it is used to support personal selling and advertising,
it is rarely used alone as a promotional tool. In marketing practice, the
application of all promotion tools is called promotional mix.
Sales
promotion as an effective promotional tool tends to serve “as direct inducement
that to offers an extra, values or incentives on the product to the sales
force, distributors and the ultimate consumers with the primary objective of
creating an immediate sale”. Sales promotion tends to act as an a acceleration
tool designed to speed up the selling process and maximizes sales volume
through increasing market share. The acceleration tool motivates consumers to
purchase a larger quantity of a brand and it also shorten the purchase cycle of
the trade and consumers by encouraging them to take more immediate actions.
As the use of
sales promotion increase, companies now started considering what they hope to
accomplish through their promotional campaigns because not all sales promotion
campaigns are designed to achieve the same goals, marketers must plan sales
promotion programmes by carrying out situation analysis, to determine sales
promotion target audience. Marketing manager must think beyond short term sales
while the basic goal of most consumers sales promotion is to induce consumers
purchase, and marketer objective could be to defend current market share,
increase consumption through enhanced marketing efforts.
1.1
STATEMENT OF GENERAL PROBLEMS
Sales
promotion campaign is an effective means of communicating with the target
market by providing extra incentive to buy. Sales promotion activities are
designed by firms in achieving their organizational objectives. But In spite of
the achievements there are some problems faced by these firms during the
campaigns.
The
increasing uses of sales promotion in firm’s marketing programmes is getting
too strong for them to handle because it
is a fundamental change in strategic decisions on how these trims sell
their products to consumers. The increasing sales promotion campaigns have been
questioned by many marketing scholars particularly with regards to lack of
adequate planning and management of sales promotion programmes.
Also, research
and literatures have shown that over-dependence on sales promotion by many
companies have resulted to sales promotion trap. This is because many firms use
sales promotion campaigns extensively to differentiate their products from
competitors products which has consequently resulted in reduction in profit
margin of the competing firms.
Many firms
fall into trap due to success of the sales promotion campaigns which eventually lead to differential
advantage that attracts other firms to
copy.
Finally, lack
of media timing and support for sales promotion campaigns which is very
critical and should be coordinated with the media programmes on advertising
campaigns. Sales promotion without media advertising could render the campaign
ineffective because consumers need to be informed about the promotional offers
to stimulate their interest and favourable attitude towards the brand.
1.2 BACKGROUND OF
THE STUDY
It is obvious
that companies can not connect all customers in large broad or diverse market
and as a result of the needs to divide market in to group of consumer or
segments with distinct needs and wants. It therefore becomes paramount for a
company to identify which market segment to serve better. Before the objective
can be achieved, it is required that a keen understanding of consumer behaviour
and careful strategic thinking. To develop the best marketing planning,
managers need to understand what makes each segment unique and different.
Modern marketers in their quest to study consumer behaboviour and responses to
benefit offer by the product for example do people want quantity rather than
low price. In an attempt to increase benefit to consumers, this will aid
marketers to know how best to satisfy each category of these customers. It
required a keen understanding of consumers’ behaviour and careful strategic
thinking.
The over all
intent is to identify groups of similar customers and potentials customers to
prioritize the groups to address to understand their behaviour and to respond
with appropriate marketing strategic that satisfy the different performance of
each choosen division and thereby improve the company revenue. This can however
be achieved through a distinct division of groups of buyers who might requires
separate product and for marketing mix known as market segmentation.
According to
Michael Porter (1970 P:37) with the right segmentation, the right list can be
purchased advertising results can be improved and customer satisfaction can be
increased leading to better reputation
Nelson (1984
page 125) explain that united states in the 18 century provides a broad
segmentation of the population of their country based statistical analysis of
house hold and geo-demogrpahic data. The recent times market has been divided
based on the number of general criteria. Such as industrial or public versus
private, although industrial market segmentation is quite different from
consumer market segmentation but both have similar objectives. Regardless of
which type of segmentation a marketer uses, the secret behind the marketing
programmes recognize customer differences and efficiently highlight the
differences to offer maximum satisfaction to every division.
1.3
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDIES
This research work is on
an appraisal of the impact of sales promotion on the choice of mobile phone
service providers specifically aimed at achieving the following specific
objectives.
– To find out the impact of
sales promotion in the organization
– To investigate how sales
promotion could be used in building image and good will for the organization.
– To investigate how sales
could be lifted substantially through effective targeting and reward system.
– To enhance market
dominance of the company’s products.
– To make recommendations on
how to improve marketing performance of the company through sales promotion.