The Impact of Personal Selling in the Marketing of Beverages in Enugu State (a Case Study of Milo Product of Nestle Nigeria Plc)
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objectives of the study among other things include the following:-
- To determine the impact of personal selling on the marketing of Milo
- To evaluate the personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo.
- To find out whether personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo creates awareness for the product.
- To determine whether personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo has any significant impact on the sales volume of the product.
- To determine whether the personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo has any significant impact on the profitability of the product.
- To determine whether the selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo is in adequate or not.
- To recommend possible ways of improving on the personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo.
CHAPTER TWO
CONCEPT AND MEANING OF PERSONAL SELLING
It is important to note that there are as many definitions of personal selling as there are many authors.
According to Busch and Houston (1985: 62) personal selling is defined as a face to face communication of information from a seller to a prospective buyer.
In the view of Burnett (1990: 241) it is the interaction of a seller and buyer for the purpose of facilitating exchange for the mutual satisfaction of both parties, it can also be referred to as the oral presentation in a conversational manner with one or more prospect for the purpose of making sales.
In the view of Udeagha (1999: 227) personal selling is a process of conversing for the sale of a company’s product or services by a salesman or woman, it is dybolic process involving direct contact between the seller of a product or service and the prospective buyers through oral, face to face or telephone discussions or written mail exchange of ideas, through and opinions, such sales people can be independent sales representatives of marketing organisation (manufacturing or wholesalers) sales agents or a company’s field salesmen or women. He (Udeagha 1999: 227) further explained that a sales task can also be carried out by a company’s manager or director, it may entail efforts to personally persuade a farmer or a group of farmers to purchase a company farm chemicals, its tractors etc and a bid to convince a beer company to purchase a brewing plant or the minister of defense that a named brand of helicopter is good for his country and to induce him to involve the use of high pressure tacties to move buyers into purchasing the sellers product or service.
No, what is meant is that a salesmen or woman should after studying the need and want of the buyer, present his product or service to him or her in such a way that the better is motivated to buy.
Thus, although selling has to be persuasive and even aggressive, it has to be creative, imaginative and geared at satisfying the customer.
In the view of Agbonfoh, Ogwo and Nnolim (1998: 437) personal selling is defined as interpersonal, face to face interaction for the purpose of creating, modifying, exploiting o maintain a mutually beneficial exchange relationship, it involves direct face to face contact and thus the only promotional tool that can encourage and make use of on the spot consumer reaction. They further explained that the importance of personal selling is inherent in its nature which involves the use of salesman, who would usually be quite flexible in putting across their message to ensure that it confirms to the peculiar needs of their audience.
PERSONAL SELLING AS A PROMOTIONAL MIX
According to Edoga and Ani (2000: 292) personal selling is seen as the person to person communication between a marketer (salesperson) and member of the target market, it is one of the promotion mix which an organisation can adopt in designing its promotional game plan. They observed that personal selling is a very important function of the marketer and seen as the last link between organisation and the consumer.
Personal selling can also be described as the process of searching for needers, turning or changing them to wanters, and finally to buyers (Edoga and Ani 2000: 292) it is also seen as the process of determining the eneeds and service or idea in such a way that the buyer is motivated to make a faviouable decision. Edoga (1997: 72) pointed out that personal selling involves the two way flow of communication between the buyer and seller, it can be done face to face through the telephone, through telecommunication marketing, fax message, e-mail and through computer network.
Personal selling serves major roles in a firms overall marketing effort. Salesperson are the crucial link between the firm and its customer (Edoga and Ani 2000: 293). This role in the view of Udegha (1999: 234) requires that sales people match company’s interest with customer needs to satisfy both parties in the exchange prcess, sales persons are the company’s eye on the consumer.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
It is important to note that before a good research work can be carried out, the need to state in clear terms the methods and procedures adopted in conducting the study.
The researcher therefore, sourced out data from two major sources:
- Primary source and
- Secondary sources
The primary sources consist of questionnaires, personal interviews and observations, while the secondary sources involves the review of material relevant to the study.
SOURCES OF DATA
The sources of data for the project work were from two major sources as noted earlier. The source includes:
- Primary sources
- Secondary sources
PRIMARY DATA: These data were elicited from the respondents using questionnaire structured and personal interview conducted on selected member of the population of study.
SECONDARY DATA: These were extensively used in order to enable the researcher gain greater insight in the area of investigation. Secondary data were elicited from textbooks materials, journals relating to the area of investigation.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The population of the study the management and employee of the case organisation, middlemen and consumers of beverages. The organisation has a work force of 30 employee and 150 registered dealers.
However, the population of the consumers are not known.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
This chapter present the data analysis and interpretation using statistical tools.
The researcher used tables and percentages in presenting and analyzing the data.
A total of 221 questionnaire were distributed to consumes and dealers of Milo within Enugu metropolis. However, 200 number out of the total number were completely filled and returned. The table below shows the number of questionnaire distributed and returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The researcher have critically analysed the data collected from respondents which were also I the testing of the hypothesis formulated.
Firstly, that personal selling strategy adopted in the marketing of Milo have positive impact on the performance of the product particularly on the sales volume. Hence it has been found to be a veritable instrument that effectively and efficiently complement the advertising effect on the product.
Thus, it is regarded as the last ‘bus-stop’.
Secondly, the personal selling strategy used in the marketing of Milo takes various selling positions depending on the nature and structure of the market and retail outlets. These selling position include order – taker, order give etc.
Again, it was discovered that in most selling conditions, personal selling can be used to create awareness of the product in the market, for instance in most of the interior villages where illiteracy level is still very high besides absence of advertising media person selling strategy such as the use of hawkers have been found to be very effective.
Thirdly, it was discovered that personal selling strategy is the only promotional tool that can effectively solicit for immediate response from customers in the marketing of any product particularly in consumer market.
Other findings on this study include:
- That personal selling strategy through the use of salesperson builds goodwill for a product and company.
- That personal selling strategy can be effectively and efficiently used in customers complains hardly.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In view of the above findings made by the researcher, the following recommendations were made:
That retail shops, supermarkets and other retail centers where personal selling strategy is used in the market of Milo on orientation course or serve by organize in order to educate these salespersons on the role and function of personal selling. These unveil the opportunity for more exploitation o the relevance of personal selling strategy.
That the effort of the personal selling strategy can be compliment by other promotional programmes such as sales promotion, public relation and advertising.
That customers salesperson relationship should be improved through efficient customers complaint move and proper orientation on the dictates and demand of salesperson job.
That most of the salesperson used in the marketing of Milo are either illiterate or near illiterate. They lack adequate understanding and knowledge of the salespersons function particularly in customer complaint management.
CONCLUSION
Personal selling strategy has been found to be a veritable promotional tool that can be adopted in the marketing of consumer products particularly in the beverage market. This is due to the fact that it is often regarded as the ‘last bus stop’.
Its importance include increasing the patronage of he product, building goodwill for both the company and its products as well as a more cost effective promotional tool for the marketing of beverage particularly where the level of awareness of the product in the market is very high.
Various selling positions in the market for this product ar order takers and order givers.
However, a large number of salesperson used in the marketing of the product lack proper orientation in the functional role of salespersons.
Therefore in order to efficiently exploit, the benefits of personal selling proper orientation is indispensable.
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