ABSTRACT
The need for an organization to properly coordinate its marketing communications strategies in order to achieve a clear, consistent and competitive message about itself and its product has become issue of concern to every result driven firm. The study is aimed at examining the impact of integrated marketing communications in the overall performance of consumers patronage of Nigerian bottling company. The objectives of this research among others are to (i) To determine the effect of Advertising on the customer patronage of 5Alive fruit drinks. (ii) To examine how Sales Promotion enhances sales volume of 5Alive fruit drinks. (iii) To determine the impact of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in the overall performance of the Nigerian bottling company. The researcher adopted descriptive research design using a mixture of survey and ex-post facto methods and two hundred and ninety-seven (297) structured questionnaires were distributed among sampled respondents in owerri metropolis and studied in other to achieve the objective of the study. Then Out of (297) questionnaires administered to respondents, 280 questionnaires representing 94.3% were carefully filled and returned. The researcher also adopted primary data in gathering the required information’s.
In analyzing data, the researcher used suitable statistical tool chi-square (X2) and three hypotheses were also tested and analyzed. Based on the data collected and analyzed, the researcher found out among others that marketing communications tools enhances consumer’s patronage and brand loyalty of 5Alive fruit drinks as well as its sales volume. In view of the findings, the researcher recommends; the need to study marketing communications tools in order to improve organizational profitability and growth; also that Producers of 5Alive and other players in the industry should explore the wonderful opportunities that are available to them through the application of marketing communications tools in enhancing sales volume.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page
..................................................................................................
i
Declaration ..................................................................................................ii
Certification
.................................................................................................iii
Dedication
....................................................................................................iv
Acknowledgement
........................................................................................v
Table of Contents
.........................................................................................vi
List of
Tables................................................................................................vii
Abstract.........................................................................................................viii
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 introduction……………………………………………………...............1
1.1
Background to the Study ……………………………………................1
1.2 Statement of the
Problem.......................................................................5
1.3 Objectives of the
Study.........................................................................6
1.4 Research Questions...............................................................................6
1.5 Research
Hypotheses.............................................................................7
1.6 Scope of the
Study..................................................................................7
1.7
Significance of the
Study..........................................................................7
1.8
Limitations of the
Study..........................................................................8
1.9
Definition of
Terms.................................................................................8
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
2.1 Overview of Integrated Marketing
Communications (IMC)....................10
2.2
The Tools for Integrated
Marketing Communications (IMC)..................12
2.3 Integrated marketing communications (IMC)
as a Concept and Process..21
2.4 Integrated
marketing communications (IMC)
Planning Model ……………23
2.5 Models of Marketing Communication Process
..........................................24
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research
Design....................................................................................26
3.2 Area of the Study...................................................................................26
3.3 Population of the
Study...........................................................................27
3.4 Sample Size Determination......................................................................27
3.5 Sampling
Techniques………………………………………………………30
3.6 Method of Data
Analysis………………….………………………………31
3. 7 Instrument for Data Collections...............................................................32
3.8 Validity of the Research
Instrument.........................................................32
3.9 Reliability of the
Research Instrument…………………………………….32
3.9.1
Sources of Data…………………………………………………………….33
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS...............................................34
4.1 Test of
Hypotheses.......................................................................................44
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY
OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary
of Findings....................................................................................52
5.2 Conclusions...................................................................................................52
5.3 Recommendations..........................................................................................53
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
LIST OF TABLES
Table
4.1.1: On Administration of
Questionnaire.........................................34
Table
4.1.2: On Sex Distribution of
Respondents.........................................35
Table
4.1.3: On Age Distribution of
Respondents........................................35
Table
4.1.4: On Educational Qualifications of
Respondents.........................36
Table
4.1.5: On Marital Status of
Respondents.............................................36
Table
4.1.6: On Occupation of Respondents..................................................37
Table
4.1.7 On
Whether Respondents have Consumed 5ALive Fruit Drinks.............................................................................................................37
Table
4.1.8: If ‘‘YES’’ Which of the Fruit Drinks have
you Consumed.............38
Table
4.1.9: On whether the 5ALIVE was so
Tasty........................................39
Table
Table 4.1.10: On Whether Producers of
5ALive utilizes Marketing
Communication Tools.......................................................................................39
Table 4.1.11: On whether Advertising encourages Consumer Patronage
of 5ALive Fruit
Drinks.......................................................................................................40
Table 4.1.12:
On whether Sales Promotion enhances
Sales Volume of 5Alive fruit Drinks...............................................................................................41
Table
4.1.13: On whether Marketing
Communications Tools contributes to Brand
Loyalty of 5Alive fruit
drinks............................................................42
Table
4.1.14: On which Marketing Communications Tools enhances consumers
Brand
Loyalty of 5Alive fruit drinks.........................................42
Table 4.1.15: On
whether the company frequently redeems its pledges immediately/ during Sales
Promotion .......................................................................43
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The need for an organization to
properly coordinate its marketing communications
strategies in order to deliver a clear, consistent, credible and competitive
message about itself and its product has become a challenge today for every
result oriented firm. Effective marketing communications should therefore be an
integral part of every efficient and result driven organization. How innovative
and creative marketing communications practitioners are inappropriately
combining, coordinating and efficiently using marketing communication tools
will have great impact on their companies’ products /services and by extension,
on such products’ market share. This again could pose serious challenge to
competing companies across markets in the country. The Integrated Marketing
Communication (IMC) approach believes that a company must leave no chance for
error, no patience for miscommunication, and no time for confusion. (Picton and
Broderick, 2005).
Integrated
marketing communication (IMC) is a concept of marketing communications planning
that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the
strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines -general advertising
direct response, sales promotion, and public relations and combines these
disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact
(Belch and Belch, 2009).The integrated marketing communication (IMC) approach
placed much importance on the consistency of messages and as such avers that
communications effort
of an organization through its various products must project a synergized
voice. According to Schultz and Kitchen (1997) as in Ehikwe (2005) business
(companies) must be able to deliver the right message in the right medium to
elicit the right results. A simple positive argument for integrated marketing communication
(IMC) is that there are financial, competitive benefits to be achieved through
the synergy afforded by the process of integration ( Peltier and Schultz,
2003,; Smith, 2002,; Schultz and Kitchen, 2000,; Thomas, 2001,; Picton and
Hartley, 1998). Rather than being considered as a revolution in the marketing
thought, integrated marketing communications (IMC) is gradually emerging as a
natural evolution in marketing communications brought about by drastic changes
in at least three main areas, which are : (i) the market place, (ii) the media
and communications, (iii) the customers ( Kehinde,2009). These changes have
been driven primarily by advancement in information and technology; and have
caused a major shift from the mass marketing, product centered theories of
marketing popularized in the 1950s and 1960s
to the more customer centered , database-driven interactive and
measurable approaches of integrated marketing communications ( Schultz, 2003)
as in Ehikwe (2005).
The
development of integrated marketing communications can be traced to the early
1980s when many Americans advertising agencies started to feel threatened by
their clients’ attempt to save money through direct media buying and patronage
and creative boutique operations. Added to these forces were the inclinations
of many advertisers to shift money from advertising to more immediate and
effective aspect of marketing. These developments came to a climax towards the
early part of 1990s when
advertising
agencies started to offer more than their traditional functions of just
producing and placing advertising in the media. The advertising agencies then
saw that their survival in the turbulent decade of the 1980s depended on
providing integrated strategies. The question one might ask here is “were
advertising agencies not adding value to their clients’ programs before
integrated marketing communications?” Of course, they were but not in ‘an
integrated sense’. Kliatchko (2005)
opines that value added services need not to start and end in only advertising
messages and strategies. But now, in an expanded view of advertising,
advertising agencies must positively evolve specific promotional mix to provide
clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact. According to Belch and Belch (2015) during the
1980s, many companies began to take a broader perspective of marketing
communication and seeing the need for a more strategic integration of their
promotional tools. The decade was characterized by the rapid development of
areas such as sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations which
began challenging advertising’s role as the form of marketing communication.
These firms began moving toward the process of integrated marketing
communications (IMC), which involves coordinating the various promotional
elements and other marketing activities that communicate with a firm’s
customers. Schimp (2000) summarized five
facts of integrated marketing communications as:
(i). Aims to affect behavior
(ii). Starts with customers or
prospects
(iii). Uses any and all forms of
contents
(iv).
Achieves synergy and
(v).
Builds relationships.
In this 21st century Nigerian
marketing environment, many organizations have not appreciated the importance
of the strategic blending of the promotional mix elements so as to produce
cohesive, consistent, clear, precise and efficient messages. The common
explanation is that through integrated marketing communications, a firm or manager
can attain synergy between all the firm’s marketing communications activities
and decisions. This synergy in turn improves performance. With the pace at
which globalization is moving, there is need for Nigerian advertising agencies
to wake up to a new reality in the marketing world ( Kehinde, 2009). The
following reasons are why marketers are adopting integrated marketing
communication approach according to Belch and Belch( 2015);
“The understanding that the strategic
integration of the various communication functions rather than having them
operate autonomously would bring many added benefits to clients and customers.
Advocates of integrated marketing communications (IMC) believe that it will
help company maximize returns on their investments. The move towards integrated
marketing communications (IMC) reflects an adaptation by marketers to a
changing environment with respect to consumer’s technology and the media. Today
many consumers are tired of being bombarded with different sales messages.”
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The
need for organizations to properly coordinate its marketing communications
strategies in order to deliver a clear, consistent, credible and competitive
message about itself and its products has become an issue of concern, which
every focus driven and result oriented firm wishes to overcome today.
Similarly, the marketing environment is becoming highly volatile, and the once
glamorous world of advertising is currently struggling to survive in a market
that seems to have adapted to integrated marketing communications (IMC) under which
managers can combine approaches and allow brands to speak with a single voice
across all media formats. It is a known fact that companies operating in the
Nigerian marketing environment still see the various promotional tools as
responsibility of different departments or agencies and this has led to
conflict of interest among these different agencies or departments thereby
performing below customer’s expectations. Due to the rate of competitiveness in
the market place, firms strive hard to keep afloat these days through the
implementation of promotional activities geared towards enhancing sales volume
of the company’s products.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
For
the purpose of this study, the main objective is the appraisal of integrated
marketing communications as a strategic tool for enhancing marketing
performance, while the specific objectives are;
i.
To determine the effect
of Advertising on the consumers patronage of 5alive fruit drinks in owerri
metropolis.
ii.
To examine how Sales
Promotion enhances sales volume of 5Alive fruit drinks in Owerri Metropolis.
iii.
To determine the impact
of integrated marketing communications (IMC) in the over-all performance of the
Nigerian Bottling company.
1.4 Research Questions
The
following research questions guides the researcher at arriving at a solution to
the problems identified.
i.
What is the effect of Advertising
on the consumer’s patronage of 5Alive fruit drinks in Owerri metropolis?
ii.
How has Sales Promotion contributed
on enhancing sales volume of 5Alive fruit drinks in Owerri metropolis?
iii.
What is the impact of
integrated marketing communication (IMC) in the over-all performance of 5Alive
fruit drinks in Owerri metropolis?
1.5 Research
Hypotheses
Based
on the research questions and objectives, the researcher used the following
hypotheses as a guide;
i. Ho: Advertising has no effect on consumer
patronage of 5Alive fruit drinks in Owerri metropolis.
ii. Ho: Sales Promotion does not enhance sales volume
of 5Alive fruit drinks in Owerri metropolis.
iii. Ho: Integrated Marketing communications tools does
not have any impact on the over-all performance of 5Alive fruit drinks in
Owerri Metropolis.
1.6 Scope of the Study
This study covers appraisal of integrated
marketing communications(IMC) as a strategic tool for enhancing marketing
performance, concentrating more on 5Alive fruit drink of Nigerian Bottling
Company (NBC) Plc in Owerri metropolis.
1.7 Significance of the Study
This study is beneficial to the following;
i.
Company: The study will be
of immense contribution to the corporate existence of Nigerian Bottling Company
(NBC) as it is expected to unravel the need for full adoption of integrated
marketing communications (IMC) toward organizational growth and competitiveness
in a volatile marketing environment.
ii.
Consumers:
This study is also expected to
contribute to consumer satisfaction as organizations adapt to integrated
marketing communication(IMC), the consumers stands the chance of becoming partners as conscious effort are
being made towards communicating clear, consistent, precise and efficient
messages.
iii.
Students:
The study is expected at the end to also
be a reference material to students and the academia who will find the study
useful for further study in a similar or related area of interest.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
This
research work is intended to be comprehensive but due to the anticipated
limitations it might not be able to attain the set goal. This is because there is a lot of time
involved in sourcing materials for this study and poor responses due to
uncoordinated attitude of the respondents. costs was also incurred in designing
the questionnaires.
1.9 Definition of Terms
For
proper understanding of this study, some operational terms used in this work
were defined thus;
Integrated Marketing Communication
(IMC): This means coordinating to integrate
various promotional elements and other marketing activities that communicates
with a firms customer.
Advertising
Agency: This is a firm or a company that is
staffed with people who are advertising practitioners and which render
advertising services to its clients. They include
government agencies, Rosabel Advertising, Insight communications, Pal
Communications.
Marketing Communication: Marketing
communication is the process of communicating with the individual groups or
organization directly to facilitate exchange by influencing them to accept the
company’s products or ideas. It is also
messages and related media used to communicate with a marketer. It is also a
message that deals with buyers and sellers relationship.
Consumer: This
is an individual who buys products or services for personal or household needs use
and not for resale.
Advertising
Practitioner: APCON defines an advertising
practitioner as one who is skilled in planning, creating and placing
advertisement.
Media:
These can be defined as the channels through which advertising or promotional
messages are transmitted to the intended audience. This includes the media of
mass communication such as Newspapers, Radio, Television, Outdoors display such
as billboards, etc.
Public
Relations: (PR), Planned activities designed to
promote goodwill between an organization and its publics.
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