ABSTRACT
This research study was aimed at Appraising the
Promotional Strategies of Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, with special emphasis
on Enugu plant. It also tried to find the significant elements, which consumers
hold seriously to in their choice of Coca-cola products and those elements
which discourage consumers from Coca-cola products. The study moves ahead to
evaluate those promotional strategies that were helpful to marketing manager
arid those ones that was grossly inefficient and run counter to the appeals and
objectives of the company.
Therefore, (150) copies of questionnaires were administered
to consumers of Coca- cola products, and (125) were returned and ten (10)
copies of Management of Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, Oral accommodate some
questions that could not be conveniently included in the questionnaires.
It was found that whereas the company consistently
uses its promotion tools in this order; advertising sales promotion,
publicity/public relations, personal selling and exhibitions/trade fairs, the
consumers consistently receive the company's promotional messages in this order
advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, publicity or public relations
and exhibitions or trade fairs. It was found that whereas the company regularly
uses the media in this order; Outdoor, Television, Radio, Newspapers and Magazines,
the consumers receive the company's promotional messages in this way: Radio,
Television and rest of others. In other words, there was no synchronization
between what the company claims it does and what the consumers receive.
It was found that the company's advertising recall level
.was not effective among consumers.
Other major weakness the company has was the scarcity
and relative high prices of its products, while its major strengths were
quality and popularity of its products. Enugu Plant has public relations
department but it is not effective.
Finally, we recommend what we considered appropriate
measures that would enhance the company's sales methods such as advertising,
personal selling, publicity relations, sales promotion and exhibitions. Since
beautifully designed promotional strategies are not substitutes for bad
products, we also preferred some recommendations that bother on company's
products and target markets.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vii
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of
Problems 2
1.3 Objectives
of Study 3
1.4 Research
Hypothesis 3
1.5 Significance
of the Study 3
1.6 Scope and
Limitations of the Study 5
1.7 Definition
of Terms 6
1.8 Historical
Background 7
CHAPTER
TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical
Background 9
2.1.1 Promotion 9
2.1.2 Strategies 10
2.2 The Promotion/Communication
Mix 11
2.2.1 Advertising 12
2.2.2 Personal
Selling 14
2.2.3 Sales
Promotion 16
2.2.4 Product
Promotion 16
2.2.5 Propaganda 17
2.2.6 Publicity 17
2.2.7 Public
Relations 17
2.3 Review of Related
Project works 18
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Sources of
Data 23
3.2 Population
of Study 23
3.3 Determination
of sample Size 23
3.4 Sampling
Procedure 24
3.5 Selection
and Construction of Research Instrument 25
3.6 Administration
of Research Instrument 26
3.7 Method of
Data Analysis 26
CHAPTER
FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Analysis of
Data Obtained from the Consumer’s Questionnaire 27
4.2 Analysis of
Data Obtained from the Management Questionnaire 33
4.3 Testing of
Hypothesis 37
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS,
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary of
Findings 44
5.2 Recommendations 45
5.3 Conclusion 47
References 49
Appendix I: Consumers
Questionnaire 51
Appendix II: Management Questionnaire 55
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Soft Drinks Manufacturing
Industries in Nigeria adopt many strategies to enhance the sale of their
variously branded products, various sales methods such as branding, heavy
promotional efforts in form of sales promotion, personal selling, advertising,
public relations and publicity are adopted as strategies to enhance sales
efforts. Besides, the effects of mass production and cut-throat competition in
soft drinks market in Nigeria have equally called for various strategies to be
adopted by the company involved. Mass production and competition are not the
only factors that have contributed in making soft drinks industries apply
strategies in promoting their products. Dwindling and deteriorating economy in
Nigeria have drastically reduced per capital income of average Nigerians,
making them' to concentrate on basic necessities of life-food, shelter and
clothing. Soft drinks are no longer in their scale of preference. This
condition has not only brought the use of promotional tool to its strategies in
promotion of soft drinks.
Needless to say that every soft
drinks company in Nigeria adopts one or more of the promotional tools to inform
and persuade the target market about its products.
If one looks closer at some of
the strategies adopted by some of these soft drinks companies, one may discover
that some of these strategies are wholesome and helpful to marketing managers
"of these companies while some are grossly inefficient and run counter to
the appeals and objectives of the organization. A typical example of
inefficient promotion strategies is where a half nude girl is shown on the
television screen serving some brands of soft drinks to a group of people. The
objective may be to attract attention, but such strategy is very discouraging
especially in the Christendom, many promotional strategy of this soft have
collapsed resulting in a considerable waste of time, energy and company's
resources.
Nigerian Bottling Company Plc,
makers of Coca-cola products, the focus of this study, is one of the best-known
leaders in soft drinks industries in Nigeria and indeed the whole world.
Although the company enjoys leadership position, its life is not altogether
easy. Some firms in the industry keep challenging its strength while others try
to take advantage of its weakness. The company's risky and prominent position
calls for well-designed and carefully throughout strategies .capable of
achieving the promotional objectives of the company.
There is no gain-saying that
promotional strategies that are not carefully designed and planned could easily
make the company miss a turn in the road and lose its leadership position in the
industry. It therefore, becomes imperative for Nigerian Bottling Company Plc,
to be careful in choosing and 'planning strategies it adopts in the sales of
its variously branded products.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
The Nigerian Bottling Company Plc
was incorporated as a private company in November 1951, to establish and
operate factories for the bottling and distribution of soft drinks in Nigeria,'
particularly the world famous Coca-cola Company of Atlanta, U.S.A. The company
whose operation is presently spread throughout Nigeria has 17 factories located
variously at Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Jos, Benin City,
Enugu, Owerri, Otta, Maiduguri and Onitsha.
In an attempt by this bottling
company to develop their soft drinks industries in Nigeria, many other so~
drink company's raised their he~ in competition because they have seen that
this bottling company has stand their grounds in the country. This made these
companies to adopt several promotional strategies to attract the publics'
attention and also induce them to action.
These problems and many more that
was encountered by this bottling company (Coca-cola) can be summarized at thus:
To crown it all the research
study is prompted by 3 main problems:
1. To examine the extent of competition in Nigeria Bottling
Company.
2. To identify those economic
problems that can prevent the consumers from consuming the Coca-Cola Product.
3. To determine the extent of
the effect of price and promotional strategies that has been adopted by the
Nigerian Bottling Company as the market leader.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The primary objective of this
research study is to determine or evaluate the promotional strategies adopted
by Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, makers of Cocacola products.
Other minor objectives are:
1. To determine whether the
company engages in aggressive promotional strategies.
2. To determine how often the company uses each of the
promotional strategies available to them.
3. To determine which of
promo-tool and medium that the company uses most frequently in reaching the
target audience.
4. To determine the
effectiveness of the advertisement in terms of creation of awareness and recall
level.
5. To determine whether the company
has adequate budget to meet up with the promotional activities of the company.
6. To determine whether the
current sales promotion titled: "You Can Be One of the Mega
Millionaires" has significally increased the consumption of Cocacola
products in recent times.
7. To determine those possible
strategies to be recommended to enhance the company's sales effort.
1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Based on the above stated
objectives, the following assumptions are made:
1. Consumption pattern of
Coca-cola is dependent on the promotional effort of the company.
2. Promotion of Coca-cola
significantly affects the attitude of consumers towards the products.
3. Returns generated by the
Nigeria Bottling Company are directly proportional to the effort of the
product.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
At this juncture, one may ask why
the researcher has chosen to spend his valuable time, effort and energy in
writing on this topic titled: An Appraisal of the Promotional Strategies
Adopted by Soft Drinks Industries in Nigerian with special emphasis on Nigerian
Bottling Company.
Some markets leaders believe they
are in "essential commodity" business, therefore, strategy in
promotion is considered a waste of money. When things get rough the tendency is
to cut budget and in many cases promotional budget is out NBC, should not make
such silly and gravious mistakes.
The company should understand
that the position it occupies should not be taken for granted. The company is
like a large elephant being attacked by swarm of bees. The largest and nastiest
bees keep buzzing around the leader and any slightest opportunity will lead to
disastrous attack. This research work is, therefore, very essential to keep the
company abreast of the strategies in promotion to launch defensive attack
against other soft drink companies.
This research work will not help
the company to maintain its guard against its market challenges, market
followers and other soft drink firms but also will help the firm to come out
with an effective, well-designed and up-to-date promotional strategies capable
of keeping the company afloat amidst of all rigors of competition.
In other words, this research is
of paramount importance because it will add to what is to guide the company in
designing, promotional strategies, (although not a substitute for a bad
product) that will lead to:
a. Providing information about the company's products, ideas and
services.
b. Persuading present and
potentials customers, no matter the economic condition, to buy.
c. Holding present customers and attracting new ones.
d. Helping the company to remain in business.
e. Differentiating the company's products.
f. Increasing sales in off-seasons.
Ovaltine (Nigeria) Limited paid
the penalty by failing to keep its products, Ovaltine constantly in the minds
of consumers. When Milo and Bornvita surfaced with their well-designed
promotional strategies, Ovaltine was swept off the market. We, therefore,
hope that the findings and recommendations offered in this research study will
help Nigerian Bottling Company to overcome such mistakes.
Other researchers will also find
this project useful. It will form a base for continued research and assessment
on the subject matter.
1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Scope of study simply means where
the research is expected to cover Nigerian Bottling Company Plc has several
plants throughout Nigeria' but this study is directed mainly to Enugu Plant
located in Enugu State.
The researchers were made to
understood, the Nigerian Bottling Company Plc, Enugu plant control 65% of the
market share of soft drink market in Enugu, which highlights the company as a
market leader. The researcher also gathered from the sales manager that the
main customers of their product were the younger ones of school age, teenagers
and adults. Since their sales promotional emphasis is based on schools, it
becomes inevitable to conduct the research within the post-primary and post-secondary
schools levels. To descend below the post primary would be problematic, as the
kids could not complete the questionnaire. And to ascend above the post university
would be faced with the problem consumers, who consume less of the product. One
may argue what of those outside this group? Enugu, which is the zone of study,
could boast that greater percentage of the non-focus groups has passed through
one form of school system or the other. Therefore, the choice of sample would
be a representative one.
Although, the research was
conducted successfully, it was however, with some shortcomings such as:
1. Areas of Coverage: Nigerian
Bottling Company has several plants scattered all over the country; but the
study was carried out on only one plant (Enugu). Enugu plant, itself, covers
many areas out of which only Enugu Urban were covered in this research. Most of
the advertising Companies are done at national level; therefore, researcher
findings at Enugu Plant may fairly serve for generalization, although not an
ideal condition.
2. Excess Literature:
Promotional strategy is a field; many authors have published big and
comprehensive volumes. There was the problem of extracting from the lot, data
that are relevant to the project, as the researchers do not go into much detail
of accumulated data over the years.
3. Time Constraint: To do
adequate justice to a research of this nature would have required enormous
expenditure of time. A research of this magnitude would require about seven to
eight months of this magnitude would require about seven to eight months of
uninterrupted study to cover it adequately but very few months were given
coupled with final year academic work and nature of the semester system. In other words, a major constraint to the
investigation was the short time given for conducting and reporting of this
investigation. It is believed that
subsequent researchers will continue from where we stopped.
4. Financial Constraint: As a result of economic hardship in the
country, the researcher does not have enough money with which to carry out the
research and yet feed properly. As a
result the researcher went without food on few occasions and this was not a
happy experience.
5. Bureaucracy: Because of office bureaucracy or red tapeism
and anti-research attitude of Nigerians, difficulty was encountered information
needed for this project.
6. Sample Size: The researcher
encountered the problem of reaching a reasonable sample size of the population
in order to have actual and genuine opinions.
Despite the above constraints, the researcher is confident that the
final report has a good degree of validity and reliability.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
To enhance the understanding of
this project, the researcher has taken time to explain the following terms:
1. Promotional Mix: This
includes the elements of promotion which are employed in combination to achieve
an organizational goal or objective.
2. Personal Selling: A kind of
seller’s promotional activity conducted on a person-to-person basis with the
buyer.
3. Advertising: Impersonal
selling of goods and services, ideas or policies, usually done through the mass
media such as radio, television etc. and which are fully paid for.
4. Consumer: An individual who
is the final user of a product or service.
He may buy or may not buy has the capacity to consumer.
5. Media: Media refers to the
different types of vehicles or devices by which advertising messages reach the
audience.
6. Sales Promotion: It is a
short-term incentive aimed at encouraging purchase or sale of a product or
service.
7. Public Relations: This is
the activities of the NBC that help in building and maintaining sound and
productive relation. Most often it is
interwoven with publicity which is non-personal stimulation of demand for a
product, services, or business unit or obtaining favourable presentation of it
upon radio, television, or stage that is not paid for by the sponsor.
8. Promotional Strategy: Is a
controlled, integrated programme of communication methods and materials
designed to present a company and its products to prospective customers.
9. Promotion: The marketing
communication undertaken to accept ideas, concepts or things.
10. Population: The entire
universe or area in which the research is to be conducted.
11. Sample; A small group of
universe, which the research is taken in order to generalize.
1.8 HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
Nigerian Bottling Company Plc is
one of the few multinational organizations that had its beginnings in
Nigeria. From a small family owned
operation at inception, it has grown to become the predominant bottle of
alcohol-free beverages in Nigeria responsible for the manufacture and sale of
over thirty-three (33) different Coca-coal brands.
The Nigerian Bottling Company Plc
(NBC) was incorporated in November 1951, as a subsidiary of the A.G. Leventis
Group with the franchise to bottle and sell Coca-cola products in Nigeria.
Production began in 1953 at a
bottling facility in Ebute-metta, Lagos.
Over the years production capacity has grown and it presently has
thirteen (13) bottling facilities and over Eighty (80) distribution warehouses
located across the country.
Since production started, NBC Plc
has remained the largest bottler of non-alcoholic beverages in the countries in
terms of sales volume with about 1.8 billion bottles sold per year, making it
the second bottles sold per year, making it the second largest market in
Africa.
Today, it is a part of the
Coca-cola Hellenic bottling Company (Coca-cola Hellenic).
One of the Coca-cola company
largest anchor bottlers worldwide. Coca-cola Hellenic in 2009. The company is
driven by over 6,000 employees, a culture of passion for excellence,
sophisticated technology and the best distribution network in the country with
13 high performing bottling plants, over 80 deports and over 200,000 sales
outlets nationwide, it supply some of the most ubiquitous and best known brands
including; Coca-cola, Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes, Eva Water and Five Alive.
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