CHAPTER ONE
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Background
of the Study
Advertising
and sales promotion are becoming very regular in our world today especially
with the downturn in the economy and the consequent decimation of consumers
purchasing power. In any production setting, it is believed that the production
process is not complete until the goods and services get to the final
consumers. Marketing as a concept involves the integration of advertising and
sales promotion strategies which must be effectively carried out during and
after the production of the products or services towards the effective and
efficient satisfaction of consumer. Advertisements and commercials are
available now in any media you turn to, on every newspaper, magazines, article,
billboard adverts are everywhere especially in the urban places. There is always one sales promotion or the
other going on at any point in time.
Advertising
has been defined by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) as
a form of communication through media, about products, services or ideas paid
for by an identified sponsor.
The
American Marketing Association and research professional defined Advertising as
“any paid form of non –personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and
services by an identified sponsor’.
From Communication perspective, advertising has
been defined as “a form of paid mass communication intended to persuade
prospects to prefer a brand or type of certain goods, services or ideas to all others
or others in the same category, and thus to move and induce them to patronize
the goods or services or adopt the ideas”. The communication oriented
definition has been further broken down for practical purposes by its author
“saying the right things about the right product, service, or idea to the right
people, in the right way, at the right time and place.
The time or space, used for the advertisement is
paid for by the advertiser. This is what separates advertising from
publicity. A lot of people are exposed
to the message at the same time, unlike in personal selling. The message of the advertisement is about a
product, idea or service. The advertiser
is always identified in an advertisement. This makes advertisement different
from propaganda.
Sales promotion on the hand is any activity
engaged in by a company to create a buying desire and an immediate reaction
from customers, middlemen or company’s sales force. It comes in the form of
raffle, giving out samples, and other branded items. It is aimed at creating a
buying desire, rewarding loyal customers or attracting attention to product
improvement.
Advertising and sales promotions are part of the
marketing mix called promotion. They complement each other. Advertisement spreads the word about a
particular promotion. Sales promotion on the other hand allows the consumers to
test the product, and thus the claims contained in the advertisement. It is
used to enforce brand loyalty and reward loyal consumers and sales force.
1.2 Statement of Research Problems
A lot of money and time are being spent by companies
and organization on and for advertising and sales promotion. It is on record
that the Mobile Telecommunication Network, MTN for short, from its introduction
into
at the dawn of the Millennium till date, has doled out huge hundreds of
millions of naira solely for the purpose of advertising and sales promotion of
their Telecommunication Networks.
Advertising agencies and strategies are growing
by leaps and bound. MTN, through many
advertising innovations, is standing firmer among all other Nigeria Telecommunication
Network providers before the subscribers. Besides MTN field works for sales
promotions, the network provider advertises and promotes its business through
Media adverts, Sponsorship of entertainment industries like “football”, “Big
Brother Africa shows”, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”, “Development of
Infrastructures in collaboration with the governments and even award of
Scholarships.
Lo and behold, many companies and organization
are with ineffective and inefficient advertising departments either deficient
in funds, strategies or skills or both. It is a big concern that even customers
and subscribers of rich advertising companies and organizations such as MTN, GLO, PHCN, UNICEF and so on complain that they are equally lacking in advertising strategies,
skills and ideas. WHY? How have these
advertising deficiencies affected production, promotions, acceptability,
marketability and general growth and successes of these companies and
organizations? This is the statement of Research Problems aforementioned.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
A good number of research and investigation are
consistently undertaken and hugely sponsored by MTN and even other companies
and organization alike on the effectiveness of advertising and sales promotion
strategies for the purpose of improving sales and services delivery.
MTN, through the outlet of their customer care
service system (CCSS), persistently sample subscribers’ opinions, difficulties,
ideas, complaints and suggestions for improved sales and services. This Telecommunication
have equally employed the services of thousands for the singular purpose of
field works through questionnaires and interactive sessions with customers and
subscribers. With MTN’s “180 dialed” customers and subscribers are availed of
an opportunity to speak directly with their providers.
Hence, the objectives of the study are worthy of
enumeration as follows:
a) To ascertain the inherent effects of advertising
and sales promotions on MTN’s customer and subscribers’ decision on patronage.
b) To examine the contributions of MTN’s advertising
and sales promotion strategies in relation to other Network providers in .
c)
To discover
the effects of advertising and sales promotions in the general growth and
improvement of MTN’s market shares in the Tele communication world.
d) To determine potential effects of advertising and
promotions deficiencies on MTN’s sales and service delivery to its customers
and subscribers nationwide.
e) To uncover the consequences of employment and
engagement of incompetent, inefficient and ill-skilled agents and workers in
MTN’s advertising and sales promotion departments.
f)
To ascertain
the significance in the relationship between MTN’s advertising and sales
promotion expenditures and sales/ service delivery turnover.
1.4 Research Questions
In order to provide the required empirical data
for the study, the following research questions shall be considered to validate
recommendations.
1.
How does
advertisement and sales promotion strategies affect MTN’s customers’ and subscribers’
decision on patronage?
2.
What
contribution does MTN advertising and Sales Promotion strategies in relation to
other Network providers in ?
3.
What effect
does advertising and sales promotions have in the general growth and
improvement of MTN’s market share in the Telecommunication world?
4.
What potential
effect does advertising and sales promotions have on MTN’s sales and service
delivery to its customers and subscribers nationwide?
5.
What are the
consequences of employing and engaging incompetent, inefficient and ill-skilled
agents and workers in MTN’s advertising and sales promotion department?
6.
Is there any
significance in the relationship between MTN’s advertising/sales promotion
expenditure and sales/service delivery turnovers?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The study will test the validity of the following
hypothesis.
Hypothesis
1
Ho: Advertising and sales promotion strategies does not affect MTN’s
customers and subscribers decision making on patronage.
Hi: Advertising and sales promotion affects MTN’s customers and
subscribers decision making on patronage.
Hypothesis 2
Ho: Advertising and sales promotion strategies has no effect on the
MTN’s market share in the Telecommunication world?
Hi: Advertising and sales promotion strategies has effect on the
MTN’s market share in the Telecommunication world?
Hypothesis
3
Ho: There
is ano significant relationship
between MTN’s
advertising/sales promotion expenditure and
sales/service delivery turnovers?
Hi: There
is asignificant relationship
between MTN’s
advertising/sales promotion expenditure and
sales/service delivery turnovers?
Hypothesis
4
Ho: There
are no consequences in employing and engaging
incompetent, inefficient and ill-skilled agents
and workers in MTN’s advertising and sales promotion department?
Hi: They
are consequences in employing and engaging
incompetent, inefficient and ill-skilled agents
and workers in MTN’s advertising and sales promotion department?
1.6 Significance of the Study
The significance of the study is founded on how
MTN Nigeria limited can strengthen its adverting and sales promotion strategies
to widen and improve on its production, promotion, acceptability, marketing, general
growth and successes in the currently highly competitive Telecommunication
industry in Nigeria with GLO, ETISALAT,
ZAIN, RETEL and others in the battle to win customers and subscribers.
The
importance of this study is equally rooted in how best to improve on MTN’S
employment and engagement of competent, skilled and expert agents and workers
in their increasing advertising and sales promotion departments for the purpose
of utmost sales and service delivery to its millions of customers and
subscribers in ,
its growth and sustenance of its successes.
The
findings of this research will be of assistance to MTN’S body of advertising
agents to discover virgin strategies and unexploited and untapped areas for
stronger and more effective advertising and sales promotions for the promotion
of healthy completion among Telecommunication tariff, highest service provision,
widest interconnect ability with other Network providers and so on.
In
summary, MTN Nigeria Limited, through the strongest Network provides
nationwide, will and must boost the advertising and sales promotion strategies
and personnel if it must maintain its position in Telecommunication in
Advertising and sales promotion is fast becoming
a part of everyday life. As the world is compressed into a global village, we
depend more and more on the mass media and other communication gadgets. Except for those in very remote villages, no
day passes without one being exposed to at least one form of advertising or the
other. Many organizations in the telecommunication industry are desperately
struggling to beat competitors off and build competitive edge over other
competitors in order to maintain their status quo. They have thus, engaged in
different marketing strategies ranging from pricing to segmentation, distribution,
promotion, product, planning and development etc.
The
significance of this study is therefore to help telecommunication industries
determine the relevance advertising and marketing strategies in enhancing the
sales turnover level of their product/services.
This study will equally provide information about the effectiveness or
otherwise of advertising and sales promotion as a marketing tool for
stimulating purchase of products particularly in telecommunication industry, it
will also help to promote healthy competitors among marketers/service
organizations thereby promoting the development of the nation’s economy.
The findings of this research will help
advertising practitioners create more effective advertisements and campaigns by
letting them know the customer’s perception of a good advertisement.
Finally, this work will throw up means for further
research.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The
work basically evaluates the effect of advertising and sales promotion in
improving sales in the telecommunication industry with particular interest in
MTN Nigeria Limited.
Since
it is impossible to visit every organization in the telecommunication industry,
the scope of the study will be limited to MTN Nigeria Limited, and all
suggestions and recommendations will be advisably relevant to the industry in
relation to the topic of the research.
1.8 Limitation of study
The
extent to which the project would have taken is hindered by some factors which
include:-
Time:
There was inadequate time to carry out the
research work, considering the short semesters; much of the time was devoted to
lectures, class quiz and preparation for final semester examination.
Materials:
As a result of high cost of textbooks and other
relevant materials all reference material needed for the purpose of the project
could not be gotten. There was no much time to spend in the library, as a
result, I made do with the few textbooks, journals, articles, I could lay my
hands on and also materials from the international network (internet)
Respondents:
The reluctance of the respondents to cooperate in
giving their view on the topic especially in the area of filling the questionnaire
on time also constituted a limitation. Again some of the questionnaires were
filled improperly while some complained that they have no time to fill
questionnaires.
Fund:
Due to insufficient fund on my part, I could not
cover much desired areas. I ordinarily
would have covered for this research. As
a matter of fact, I was supposed to travel to the second time for more information
but I couldn’t due to money constraint.
Dearth of
information:
Most telecommunication/service based
organizations have series gap between the level of information obtained and the
knowledge of their consumer behavior so as to boost sales and increase
productivity.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Advert:
This refers to the action of calling people to
the attention of some paid announcements.
Advertisement:
According to |Pride and Ferrel (1985), defines it
as a paid form of non personal communication about an organization and/or its
products that is transmitted to a target audience through mass medium.
Advertising:
According to Nwosu and Nkamnebe (2006) it is
defined as “a persuasively crafted marketing communication transmitted through
the media”.
Chris Doghudje sees advertising as;
Any public notice, the aim of which is to sell or
win patronage for goods, services, ideas or institutions.
Marketing
strategy:
It comprises broad principles which marketing
managers use to achieve its business and marketing objectives in target market
( Kotler).
Product/
services:
It can be defined as the totality of what the
seller intends to sell and what the buyer intends to buy.
Customer:
Include individual consumers, groups of
individual households and organizational buyers whose needs the marketers
struggles to satisfy at all time profitability.
Share of
customers:
This is simply the portion of the customers
purchasing that a company gets in its product categories.
Prospects:
These are the potential buyers or the right
consumer of a particular product.
Marketing
element:
These are the set of controllable tactical
marketing tools which firms blends to produce the response it wants in the
target market.
Target
market:
This is a process whereby a company concentrates
its marketing activities to satisfying a particular area.
Profitability: This is
to ratio of profits to the capital that had to be invested to generate these
profits.