In any organization whether profit or non profit oriented,
the main purpose of the organization is to achieve its objectives. The
objectives cannot be achieved in a vacuum; there must be a clearly set strategy
that management should use in order to meet these objects.
Many businesses fail to realize that they cannot stay in
business without any marketing strategies. This is because they were operating
in a market that was monopolistic in nature. This means that there was no
intense competition from other organization. But these days due to dynamic
nature of the market, and consumer taste changes every day, it has become
imperative on the part of the management to look into their strategies and
review them if at all they want to remain in the business.
The integrated marketing communication mix consists of the
subsets of marketing tools that are primarily communicational in nature. They
are tools normally classified under promotion which is one of the controllable
variables of the 4ps of marketing promotional mix, they are made up of
advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity etc. It helps in
conveying message about the product offering to the customers, creating demand,
market positioning, and to make a decision related to buy a product. Among the
various promotional tools, it has been found that sales promotion is one which
stimulates quick and large purchases in a limited period of time. It can be
said that, sales promotion is the marketing activity that adds the value
proposition related to a product (i.e., getting more for less) for a limited
time in order to stimulate consumer patronage, effective sales and the effort
made by the sales force. It includes premium, contest, sweepstake, buy one get
one free, discount, point of purchase event, price offs, free gifts rebates
etc. The element in the promotional mix that is rapidly gaining additional
recognition in most industries especially in Bottling Company in Nigeria is the
sales promotion. It is not enough mostly in developing countries like Nigeria in
manufacturing to merely produce and trust that consumers will become aware of
such products. The firm has to engage in promotional activities.
Over the years some notable authors have regarded sales
promotion as having such role as:
· Boosting sales in a particular geographical area
· Appealing to special segments of the market
· Attracting bargain hunting, non brand conscious buyer
· Stimulating a new use of the product
· Encouraging more frequent use of a product
· Securing self space of a particular product
· Encouraging seasonal sales or stimulating off peak period
sales.
· Offsetting price competition
Assisting sales force in presentation of their product
because motivation and encouragement have been created.
According to
Anyanwn (1993) in his definition. He defined sales promotion “as comprising of
wide variety of tactical promotion tools of short term incentive nature”.
Promotional tools can as well be called special offer because they are extra
and specifically carried out in a particular time and place. Nwokoye (2000)
defined sales promotion as an activity that is used to stimulate sales of a
product or services and usually occurring once or even over a limited period of
time as a “Sales” conducted by a retail store or featuring price reductions of
many item of marketing.
Kotler (2000) defined sales promotion as “a short term
incentives aimed at encouraging purchase or sales of a product or services. He
further points that sales promotion is designed to stimulate stronger target
response. Nkem (2001) also went further to define sales promotion as a
marketing communication efforts or promotional campaign activities articulated
by business firms, carefully planned, organized, staffed, directed, monitored,
controlled and carried out by marketing men.
Sales
promotion devices are usually classified based on the sources and the target.
The source in this aspect could be the manufacturer, the wholesaler and the
retailer and the target could be the consumer, organization or the industrial
users, the wholesaler and the retailers. Sales promotion as a source of
stimulating demand has various techniques that must be adopted which include
samples, premium, coupon, cash rebates, contest, trade shows, buying allowance
etc all these depend on who the source and the target are. So, this study
generally tries to access the Impact of Sales promotion on Marketing of Soft
Drinks in Abakaliki Urban: Sales Promotion Conducted by Nigeria Bottling Company
Plc from 21st March-
13th June, 2014.
The Nigeria
Bottling company tool up its source from coca-cola international. It was established
by John permberton. He is a pharmacist and has operated in Nigeria since
1953.
The Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) was first commissioned
at Apapa in Lagos
State. It has the largest
plant of all the branches of Nigeria Bottling Company. The branches include Enugu, Onitsha, Owerri, Jos, Kaduna, Ibadan,
Aba, Manduguri
etc, together with their various deport. A deport was established along
Abakaliki-Enugu express way in 1980 from the branch office at Enugu.
It was headed by the Deport Sales Services Officer (DSSO).
He is the senior superintendent and assisted by another sales supervisor
together with the following people: Accountant, Drivers, store keeper, severity
men and workers. The duty of the Deport sales service officer is to take care
of the whole activities of the company. To see that every body focus on their
activities in the company, while his assistance, the sales supervisor as his
job implies to ensure a full record of
all the sales of the company. The storekeeper is in change of all the drinks in
the Deport. His duty is when the Deport sales service officer gives the loading
order to the fork lift operators; he will comply with the order and make sure
that all the sales truck must be loaded accordingly. They usually move their
drinks from the branch office Enugu
to the Abakaliki Deport. They stock different brands like fanta, coke, krest, bitter
lemon, sprite, krest tonic water, and club soda etc. They have 25cl, 35cl and
50cl alike in most cases.
This research work aims to find out the significant impact
of independent variables (sales promotional tools like premium, contest, and
frequency programs) on dependent variable (marketing of soft drinks) towards
purchase, of coca-cola products. As per previous studies, it has been found
that among the various promotional mix elements sales promotion is the most
stimulating variable for quick selling. There are various types of sales
promotion tools used by the marketers but how to decide that which of them can
stimulate the purchase.
The main objective of this study is to examine the
adequate impact of sales promotional tools on the Marketing of Soft Drinks in
Abakaliki Urban.
The specific objectives are the following:
i. To find the significant impact of contest on the marketing
of soft drinks for consumers’ patronage towards coca-cola products.
ii. To examine the significant impact of premium towards
consumer purchase decision for coca-cola products.
iii. To examine the significant impact of frequency programs as
an influencing tool towards consumer’s loyalty for coca-cola products.
i. Do contests have significant impact on consumers’
patronage for coca-cola products?
ii. To what extent does premium affect consumers’ purchase
decision for coca-cola products?
iii. How adequate is the significant impact of frequency programs
towards consumer loyalty for coca-cola products?
Hypothesis
One
Ho: Contests
have no significant impact on consumers’ patronage towards coca-cola products
Hi: Contests
have significant impact on consumers’ patronage towards coca-cola products
Hypothesis
Two
Ho: Premium has
no significant impact on consumers’ purchase decision towards coca-cola
products.
H2: Premium has
significant impact on consumers’ purchase decision towards coca-cola products.
Hypothesis
There
Ho: Frequency
programmes have no significant impact on consumer’s loyalty for coca-cola
products.
H3: Frequency
programmes have significant impact on consumer’s loyalty for coca-cola
products.
The findings of this study will be of immense benefit to:
i. Nigeria Bottling Company: The findings of this study will
be of benefit to the Nigeria Bottling Company because it will guide them on
their next promotion exercise.
ii. The competitors: The study will be of immense benefit to
the competitors because it will guide them on planning their promotion
exercise.
iii. Students/Researchers: The findings of this research work
will be of great benefit to students and researchers who may wish to carryout a
study on this topic in the future. The findings of this study will serve as a
reference point to them.
The scope evaluate the significance impact of sales
promotion on marketing of soft drinks in Abakaliki Urban; sales promotion conducted
by the Nigeria Bottling Company Plc from 21st March to 13th
June, 2014. The Scope of the study is limited to Abakaliki Urban. Though the
findings of the study can be used for generalization.
The need for an in-depth research is desired but that urge
to dig deep is limited by the following factors:
i. Time constraint: The time available for this research work
was grossly inadequate going by the extent of coverage researcher had in mind.
ii. Difficulty in obtaining relevant data: This limited the
scope of national content due to poor documentation method in Nigeria.
iii. Financial constraint: Finance is the first problem I
encountered, which really restricted my research to certain level such as the
cost of browsing the internet for data.
iv. Risk: This is
another factor ensuring that all questionnaires administered were not left out
during conversation of data which contributed greatly in hindering the carrying
out of this project work. The risk as well associated with going round
Abakaliki Urban which is the area of the study.
Sales promotion: Nkem (2001) define sales promotion as marketing
communication efforts or promotional campaign activities articulated by
business firms, carefully planned, organized, staffed, directed, monitored,
controlled and carried out by marketing men.
Marketing: Is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value
for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (Kotler 2013)
Loyalty: This is being addicted to a particular product out of
habit (Kotler 2013)
Premium: Merchandise offered at a relatively low cost or free as to
purchase of a particular product. A with-pack premium accompanies the product
inside or on the package. A free in-the-mail premium is mailed to consumers who
send in a proof of purchase, such as a box top or UPC code. A self-liquidating
premium is sold below its normal retail price to consumers who request it.
(Kotler 2013)
Frequency programs: Programs providing rewards related to the consumers’
frequency and intensity in purchasing the company products or services. (Kotler
2013)
Contest: A contest calls for consumers to submit an entry to be
examined by a panel of judges who will select the best entries. (Kotler 2013)
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