THE IMPACT OF MARKETING STRATEGY ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF AN ORGANIZATION: A CASE STUDY OF FIRST BANK NIGERIA PLC

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study: To achieve a set of organizational goals and objectives, companies conceptualize, design, and implement various strategies. These strategies can be corporate, business, or functional. Marketing strategies constitute one of the functional strategies amenable to application by contemporary companies in order to enhance performance. Marketing has been defined and conceptualized in various ways, depending on the author’s background, interest, and education. For example, marketing can be seen as a matrix of business activities organized to plan, produce, price, promote, distribute, and market goods, service, and ideas for the satisfaction of relevant customers and clients. marketing strategy is important for the success of any organization, whether service- or product-oriented.

Marketing strategy is a method by which a firm attempting to reach its target market uses to attract customers. Marketing strategy starts with market research, in which needs, attitudes and competitor’s products are assessed and the firm concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage (Nymous, 2006).Marketing strategy must focus on delivering greater value to customers and the firm at a lower cost however quantifying the return on investment from marketing expenditure on activities such as advertising, promotion and distribution is one of the most complex issue facing decision makers. Marketing performance is central to success in today’s fast moving competitive markets, and measuring marketing performance is critical to managing it effective (Chiliya, 2009).

In order to measure marketing strategy effectiveness, a business has to break down its marketing function into constituent parts, along with a mechanism through which to analyse the interaction between those parts. By doing this, decision-makers will finally be in a position to relate marketing expenses to shareholder value and to understand how to tie marketing initiatives back into the value created for the company. Decision-makers will be able to understand the internal motives that propel the marketing value of the business. The manipulation of the following marketing variables namely price variation and price promotion, research, advertising, product differentiation, quality, packaging and place will yield in-creased returns for firms.

Marketing strategies in commercial banks serve as the fundamental component of marketing plans designed to fill market needs and reach marketing objective. Marketing strategy involves careful scanning of the internal and external environments. Internal environmental factors include marketing mix, plus performance analysis and strategic constraints. While external environmental factors include customer analysis, competitive analysis target market analysis as well as evaluation of the element of technological, economic, cultural or political/legal environment likely to impact success.

Marketing strategy in commercial banks in Nigeria is basically designed to direct the flow of banking services profitably to target customers. The need for an effective marketing strategy stems from intense competition, not just from bank but other financial organization. Therefore banks strategize there marketing to create customer value as well as to establish customers need and to provide such needs in order to add more value to their service and gain competitive advantage.

However, there are challenges in measuring marketing strategies in relation to productivity. Indeed several researchers indicate that there is a gab in this regard (okoh, 2009). It is against this, that the researcher considered the subject matter as a problem worthy of investigation.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They are partially planned as such; most organizations do not adhere strictly to their organization planned strategy sequel to influence of micro and micro environmental factors. As such most organizational component of marketing strategy is not inline with the company’s overarching mission hence marketing strategy is vague and complex to comprehend. As such implementing strategic marketing plan in most organization becomes a big constraint. This  is evident in the fact that there are challenges in measuring marketing strategies in relation to productivity which several marketing literatures as well as journals have fail to address. Indeed several researchers indicates that there is a gab in this regard (okoh, 2009).

It is against this that the researcher sees the subject matter worthy of investigation. Therefore the study addresses the challenges of measuring marketing strategy in relation to productivity which has not been address by previous researches and marketing text in Nigeria

Marketing strategies and performance studies have also been done in Nigeria. Mwai (2015) carried out a study on factors that influence sales and marketing strategies adopted by commercial banks. The study found out that corporate strategy, organizational culture, target market and consumer behavior all influence the choice of sales and marketing strategies of the bank to a very large extent. Magunga (2010) also did a study on effects of marketing strategies on the performance of insurance companies in Nigeria. The study registered a positive relationship exists between product innovation as a marketing strategy and firm‟s performance. Muthengi (2015) also did a study on effects of marketing strategies on productivity of commercial banks in Nigeria. The findings  of the study indicated an overall significance of the marketing variables adopted, although not much effect was seen when a marketing variable is compared with bank performance in isolation of other variables. Therefore, there have been few studies in Nigeria on marketing strategies and its effects on productivity of small and medium enterprises. This, therefore, creates a proper avenue to fill the gap that other researchers have left. The study tries to focus on effects of marketing strategies on productivity of enterprises in Nigeria which then leads to the question; what are the effects of marketing strategies on productivity of small and medium enterprises?

1.3 Research Objective

The main objective of this study was to examine the impact of marketing strategy on the productivity of an organization: a case study of first bank Nigeria plc. Specifically the study aims to

1. Evaluate the relationship between marketing strategy and the level of profit

2. To determine the relationship between promotional strategy and the sales volume

1.4 Research Hypotheses

Based  on  the  proposed  research  problem,  research question  and the research  objectives  above,  the following null hypotheses are postulated to guide the study

H1: There  is no significant relationship between marketing strategy and the level of  profit .

H2: There is no significant relationship between promotional strategy and the sales volume  

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study will be of significance to small and medium enterprises owners since most of them aim to maximize profitability and the owner‟s interest. Thus, this study will help small and medium enterprises owners and managers to identify the necessary marketing strategies to enhance their productivity. In addition, the study will be of importance to marketing agencies. This is because marketing agencies provide marketing services to various organizations. Therefore, this study will help them to identify the specific marketing practices, which enhance performance of enterprises.

Additionally, policy makers like the government and other stakeholders around the world have been developing strategies to improve the performance and sustainability of small and medium enterprises. Therefore, this study will highlight the effect of marketing strategies on small and medium enterprises performance. The findings may be used to generate new policies and revision of the existing policies. Further, the study will provide additional knowledge and literature on marketing strategies and performance of small and medium enterprises. Future researcher and scholars may use the research findings to carry out their own studies.

To the academicians the study will contribute to the body of knowledge which will benefit scholars and researchers and simulate further research in this field of strategy implementation. Researchers could also be able to borrow from the findings of this study and may even further the study by varying the various variables used to get more precise results. This study will add to the existing body of knowledge on this very important topic of market strategies. To this extent it will be beneficial to future academic researchers who may wish to understand how different institutions carry out this process.

1.6 SCOPE/LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This study on the the impact of marketing strategy on the productivity of an organization: a case study of first bank Nigeria plc.

In the conduct of this research on Marketing Strategies and their Effects in Sales Expansion in Organizations, the researcher however, face some challenges,

Confidentiality: Most leading marketing organizations hold back vital information that could assist this research, because they believe such information are confidential.

Lack of Data Bank: Majority of organizations visited lack data bank which makes it difficult for past data to be assessed in order to carryout proper qualitative analysis and other statistical analysis.

Problem of Inadequate Fund: The researcher cannot cover wide in space due to lack of finance and in some cases some information have to be paid for and in a situation where payment is not available, the information is forgone.  Ill-equipped Libraries:  Due to the book museum called libraries and research centers, current and recent information could not be assessed. Most of the materials in the library are outdated. This problem really affected this research work because with current information either with books or internet will make this work more excellent and current.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

MARKET: This is an exchange relationship among buyers and sellers, be it traditional market place for local fresh product and handcraft.

MARKETING: It is the process of determining consumer demand for product or services, motivating its sales and distributing it to ultimate consumer at a profit

MARKETING STRATEGIES: This is referred to as all marketing effort in terms of tactics and devices that are used to identify the target market with a view to accomplishing the marketing tasks in the best possible ways.

PROMOTION: It is defined as the design and management of a marketing sub-system for the purpose of informing and persuading present and potential customers.

PRODUCT: A product is a tangible or intangible thing that can be offered to a market for attention, use or consumption that might satisfy a want or need example physical objects or services.

DISTRIBUTION: This is the route or path through which goods moves from the point of production to the point of consumption.

PRICING: It is the exchange of value for a product. It is the value that one puts on the utility that one will receive from goods and services.

MARKET LEADER: This is the firm that holds the upper hand in the market. It has influential roles on the individual existing in the market.