Marketing Research and Company’s Profitability
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
This study primarily aims at:
- To find out how regular poly bread Ado Ekiti engage in relationship marketing?
- To evaluate various relationship marketing techniques adopted by poly bread in Ado Ekiti.
- To assess the relevance of such relationship marketing approaches within the context of socio- economic realities of Ado Ekiti people.
- To examine people’s perception of such relationship marketing approaches.
- To determine the overall influence of such relationship marketing approaches on customers’ patronage of poly bread products and services.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
THE CONCEPT OF ADVERTISING
According to Gillian Dyer cited in Ezianioma (2010, p.1) advertising means “drawing attention to something.” According to Benson-Eluwa(2005, p. 3) “advertising is a form of non personal method of communicating information which is usually paid for by sponsor through various media.”
To Starch in Nnanyelugo(1995,P.11) advertising is “the paid form of mass communication designed to influence people to favor a product in order to induce them to buy.”
THE GENESIS AND GROWTH OF ADVERTISING
The genesis of advertising cannot predate the emergence of mass communication media. This is because advertising is basically a mass communication effort. However, advertising by use of different forms of notices on rocks and buildings have been traced to Greek and Roman mer3chant of old who carved some commercial signs in clay, wood or stone and hung them in front of their shops in the same manner that we use in this present day billboards. They used those signs to convey to their prospective customers the wares they had for sell including their prices and a few other important information. Those days, they also made inscriptions on the walls of their small shops to indicate the kind of products available for their customers. As time went on, advertising started to become a serious business and it wasn‟t long before people started to offer themselves as specialists in advertising. The earliest known record of an advertising agency dates back to 1786.News paper rapidly became a dominant advertising medium on till the emergence of television in the 20th century. With the opportunities that digital communications offer, only beginning to realize it look like there will be plenty of changes still to come.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provided relevant details including the research design, population, sample size and the sampling technique used in the study. In addition, the instrument used for the collection and analysis of research data were also stated in this chapter.
Research Design
The researcher used the survey research design for the purpose of this study. The choice of this design is to enable the researcher, study a representative sample of the target population. The relevance of the survey research method in this study, could be found in the words of Isaac and Michael “to answer questions that have been raised, to solve problems that have been posed or observed, to assess needs and set goals, to determine whether or not specific objectives have been met, to establish baselines against which future comparisons can be made, to analyze trends across time, and generally, to describe what exists, in what amount, and in what context.” (Isaac & Michael, 1997, p.-136). In survey research, independent and dependent variables are used to define the scope of study, but cannot be explicitly controlled by the researcher (Glasgow, 2005). The Researcher’s decision to use survey as this study’s research design was also informed by the fact that Surveys are capable of obtaining information from large samples of the population. They are also well suited to gathering demographic data that describe the composition of the sample (McIntyre, 1999, p. 74).
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
Description of Sample
The sample size for the study was 371 from the estimated population which is the total number of staff of Poly Bread. However, out of the 371 copies of questionnaire distributed, a total number of 360 copies of questionnaire were returned and found usable based on certain criteria like illegibility of response and double responses. Therefore, a mortality rate of 11 (3%) and a survival rate of 360 (97.0%) was recorded. Out of 300 copies of the questionnaires distributed to business men 200 were returned.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
The nature of business competitiveness in a capitalist economy like Nigeria and Ado Ekiti in particular, has obviously necessitated the application of certain techniques by banks in a bid to sustain customer patronage, remain in business and outwit competitors. As studies showed, customer-firm relationship is a vital factor in this dynamics. Thus, relationship marketing has become a household factor in the literature and several researches aimed at proffering solution to the challenge of sustaining customers’ patronage by business organizations. As a result, this study undertook the examination of the influence of relationship marketing in customers’ patronage of banks with focus on Poly Bread, Ado Ekiti branch. The survey research design was used to study a sample of the population of 371 and 200 business men from the Ado Ekiti markets which is the population of academic staff of College of Health Sciences Ado Ekiti campus. Respectively, a sample of 6 was purposely selected from a total number of 30 Poly Bread staff of Ado Ekiti branch. Questions were designed in the Likert scale format were used as major instrument for the collection of data while mean score was used for the analysis of research data.
In view of the analyzed data in the previous chapter, in summary, it is confirmed in the study that Poly Bread regularly carry out relationship marketing activities which among others, included face-to- face interaction with the target market on issues relating to not just the bank but the financial well being of the customers as it relates to the banks’ activities. This constitutes interaction which integrates the benefit of advertisement, publicity, public relations, personal selling derives from the fact that it is better and cost effective to retain a customer than to get new ones. As such, relationship marketing efforts of Poly Bread primarily aims at retaining the patronage of customers while using it as a basis to gain new customers for the bank. In view of this therefore the interaction holds sway in the popular comprehensive language in quasi formal or informal setting that do not insult the socio – cultural realities of the Ado Ekiti people. It therefore is no surprise that the message content of such relationship marketing is understood by both parties which make room for believability and trust and thus accounts for the perception of the bank as a friend that keeps its promises thereby influence the customers towards patronage.
Conclusion
This study concludes that the relationship marketing activities of Poly Bread pays off, and that the need for relationship marketing has continued to be relevance since majority of organizations no longer depend solely on the media for information in view of the characteristic power vintage. These are taken care of by such factors as relationship marketing activities. Related to this is the seeming aggressive rural banking that characterizes the banking sector. Presently in Nigeria, the Poly Bread relationship marketing efforts also qualify as a right step in the right direction to retain old customers while gaining new ones.
In conclusion therefore Poly Breads’ regular engagement in marketing research efforts which aligns with the socio- cultural realities of Ado Ekiti people has meaningfully helped at improving the corporate image of the bank which translates to increased patronage of the company by its customers.
Recommendations
The researcher recommends that Poly Bread should increase their community social
responsibility efforts in Ado Ekiti by providing such facilities as soft loan for small and medium scale enterprises at accessible rate since Ado Ekiti is the commercial nerve centre in Ekiti state. This, coupled with its relationship marketing would endear Ado Ekiti especially business men to the bank. In line with its relationship marketing efforts, the bank should intermittently hold /organize lunch with various stakeholders like market women or Christian mothers with a view to further gaining their patronage.
. For the purpose of further studies however, efforts should be focused on the relationship marketing efforts of other banks as basis for a comparative analysis of different banks relationship marketing efforts and their impact on customers’ patronage.
. Moreso, further studies should focus on other areas in Ekiti state (not Ado Ekiti) so as to measure the influence of differing cultures on the influence of relationship marketing efforts on customers.
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