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ABSTRACT
This study examined Integrated Marketing Communication and Consumer Patronage of Soft Drinks in Nigeria (A case study of Port-Harcourt metropolis). For the purpose of this work, the type of research design adopted is the Descriptive research. The population of this study consists of customers and marketers or producers of soft drinks. The study revealed that the proper implementation of IMC programmes by an organization especially in the Nigerian soft drinks Industry can help reduce the cost of marketing communications, thereby having effects of minimizing the company’s cost of marketing communications. It is also revealed that the proper use of IMC at the different stages of the product life cycle could be a major factor in making the products (soft drinks) to compete effectively in the market thereby recording more customer patronage for the product. It was therefore recommended among others that companies need to properly integrate their marketing communications agencies, Advertising Agencies & Public Relations firms with one another in order to ensure clarity of messages, consistency, credibility and a highly competitive message across to target audience. However, if a firm cannot do this, then it is advisable such a firm should use one single agency for its marketing communication messages.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE – – – – – – – – – i
CERTIFICATION – – – – – – – – ii
DEDICATION – – – – – – – – – iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT – – – – – – – iv
ABSTRACT – – – – – – – – – v
TABLE OF CONTENTS – – – – – – – vi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY – – – – – 1
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM – – – – – 5
1.3 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY – – – 8
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS – – – – – – 9
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY – – – – – 9
1.6 SCOPE OR DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY – – – 10
1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY – – – – – 11
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS – – – – – – 11
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 INTRODUCTION – – – – – – – 14
2.2 CONCEPTUAL REVIEW – – – – – – 16
2.2.1 INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS (OVERVIEW) – 17
2.2.2 ATTRIBUTES OR PILLARS OF IMC – – – – 19
2.2.3 VIEW OF BRAND COMMUNICATION PROGRAMMES IN IMC – 20
2.3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK – – – – – 22
2.3.1 PROMOTIONAL MIX: THE TOOLS FOR IMC – – – 22
2.3.2 THE IMC PLANNING PROCESS – – – – – 24
2.3.3 DEVELOPING THE INTEGRATED MARKETING PROGRAMME – 26
2.3.4 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR AND MARKETING
COMMUNICATION: THE LINKAGES – – – – 29
2.3.5 MODELS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION PROCESS – 33
2.3.6 MARKETING COMMUNICATION MIX ELEMENTS – – 35
2.4 SUMMARY OF LITERATURE – – – – – 45
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION – – – – – – – 46
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN – – – – – – 46
3.3 AREA OF THE STUDY – – – – – – 47
3.4 POPULATION OF THE STUDY – – – – – 47
3.5 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE(S) – – – 47
3.6 SOURCES OF DATA – – – – – – 48
3.6.1 PRIMARY SOURCES OF DATA – – – – – 48
3.6.2 SECONDARY SOURCES OF DATA – – – – – 48
3.7 INSTRUMENT(S) FOR DATA COLLECTION – – – 48
3.8 DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE(S) – – – – – 49
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 INTRODUCTION – – – – – – – 50
4.2 ANALYSIS OF DATA – – – – – – 51
4.3 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS – – – – – 58
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 INTRODUCTION – – – – – – – 61
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS – – – – – – 61
5.3 CONCLUSION – – – – – – – 63
5.4 RECOMMENDATIONS – – – – – – 64
REFERENCES – – – – – – – – 66
APPENDIX I – – – – – – – – – 71
APPENDIX II – – – – – – – – – 72
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). The IMC approach placed much premium on the consistency of messages, that by this, it posits that communications effort of a company through its different products must project a unified voice. Business (companies) must be able to deliver the right message in the right medium to elicit the right results. (Schultz and Kitchen, 1997). A simple argument for IMC is that there are financial, competitive and effective benefits to be achieved through the synergy afforded by the process of integration (Peltier and Schult, 2003; Smith, 2002; Shultz & Kitchen, 2000; Thomas, 2001; Picton and Hartley, 1998). Rather than being considered as a revolution in marketing thought, 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 consumers. These changes have been driven primarily by advancement in information technology; and have caused a major shift from the mass marketing, product centred theories of marketing popularized in the 1950s and 1960s to the more customer – centered, database-driven interactive and measurable approaches of integrated communications, (Schultz, 2003).
The concern that marketing has moved from customer acquisition (winning new customers) through ‘customer relations’ (keeping customers for life) towards customers’ deselection (dumping unprofitable customers while selectively seeking and keeping the profitable ones). He listed other forms of marketing communication strategies which are media; proliferation, audience fragmentation, advancement of information technology and the internet, consumer empowerment, increased advertising, cluster, shift in channel power and the desire for more accountability. All these underpin the driving forces leading toward integrated marketing communications.
Duncan (2002), in his contribution to the literature on evolution of IMC believed that the above definition of IMC by Schultz and Kitchen, forecasted the trend of the development of IMC in the future. He therefore noted that this new definition indicates that IMC has moved from (or has the potentiality to move from) a “marketing planning process” to a “strategic business process”. Schimp (2000) summarized five facts of IMC as:
- Aims to affect behaviour
- Starts with customers or prospects
- Uses any and all forms of
- Achieves synergy and
- Builds relationships.
Low (2000) opined that integrated marketing is simply a step further from IMC or the highest stage of IMC by focusing on conveying unified messages to customers via the correct blending of the promotional mix.
In the Nigerian marketing environment today, 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 IMC, a firm or a 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. Clients, world-over, now demand integrated solutions rather than thinking in the old-style of above or below the line statement. Client needs to create a sustainable competitive advantage to meet up with the demands. This cannot be done with advertising alone with a seamless marketing communication programme. Many clients (advertisers) are now asking themselves questions such as “How do I allocate the marketing budget over a variety of promotional tools”?. Here, many rely on the professional advice from advertising agencies. Today some advertising agencies are trying to become marketing consultants, independent media purchasers and multi-dimensional communication practitioner – (Kallmeyer and Absatt, 2001). The words of these scholars revealed the need for these advertising agencies to become total marketing oriented professionals rather than just advertising driven in order to convince clients that they can add value to their marketing efforts.
Another reason responsible for the growth of IMC according to Belch and Belch (2004) is the growth and development of database marketing. Many companies are building database containing customers’ name, geographic, demographic and psychographic profiles; purchase patterns; media preferences etc. Advocates of this approach believed that database marketing is critical to the development of effective use of IMC. A shift of marketing dollars from media advertising to other forms of promotions, particularly consumer – and trade-oriented sales promotions. Many marketers are also of the opinion that traditional media advertising has become too expensive and not cost effective (Thomas, 2001).
Finally, there is demand for greater accountability from advertising agencies and changes in the way agencies are compensated. Many companies are moving towards incentive- based system whereby compensation of their ad agencies is based, at least in part on objectives measures such as sales, market share and profitability. The rapid growth of the Internet services, which is changing the very nature of how companies do business and the interest with the consumer, could also be seen as a major reason for the growing importance of IMC in today contemporary marketing environments.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A major organizational problem that most companies face is that the various components of the promotional mix are often seen as the responsibility of different departments or agencies. Companies and agencies have different perceptions as to the uses and benefits of integration of marketing communication elements (Nowak & Phelps, 2004; Belch and Belch, 2004). Consequently, many organization executives are craving for ways of minimizing cost of marketing communications with better results. And are not sure of the synergy effects, of the use of IMC. (Picton & Hartley, 1998; Copley, 2004; Raid, 2003; Fill, 2006). One of the trends in recent time according to Pelsmacker, Geuens and Bergh (2004) is the increasing need by companies to build customer relationship in order to sustain brand loyalty.
Many Nigerian soft drink producers are using different promotional mixes without due consideration for the cost and appropriateness of the stage of product in its life cycle (Thomas, 2001; Fadipe, 2004), etc. They are often skeptical as to how to properly coordinate the communication mix at different stages of a product life (Thomas, 2001). Many soft drink producers have not fully appreciated the fact that communicating effectively with customers and other stakeholders involves not only a mix of the traditional tools but rather an efficient coordination through the adoption of the IMC approach. Many Nigerian Soft drink producers are constantly looking for how to catch and retain the youth especially school children (catch them young syndrome) and build strong brand loyalty with these school age children (Achumba 2000; Thomas 2001). Swan 2004 argued that companies face the challenge in identifying what could efficiently promote or hinder IMC implementation as various departments are faced with bulk passing of marketing communication responsibilities.
The need for Nigerian soft drink producers to fully adopt the IMC approach is therefore borne out of the fact that there are financial, competitive and effective benefits to be achieved through the synergy afforded by the process of integration. (Pickton and Hartley, 1998). Despite the broadening of marketing into many facets of Nigerian economy today, and the sensitive position that marketing promotion occupies in the strategic management of a firm’s marketing communication efforts, no known attempt has been made, locally, to investigate empirically, the impact of the use of Integrated Marketing Communications on consumers patronage of soft drink products in the Nigerian Food and Soft drink Industry. Moreover, despite the huge amount of fund spent on Advertising and Information System in the same industry, nobody seemed locally to be interested in evaluating the alternative comparison between traditional method of promotion and the new IMC method. This proposed research therefore, intends to fill that intellectual gap.
The need for Nigerian soft drink producers to fully adopt the IMC approach is borne out of the fact that there are financial, competitive and efficient benefits to be achieved through the synergy afforded by the process of integration (Pickton and Hartley, 1998).
1.3 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this study is to examine the impact of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) on consumers’ patronage of soft drinks in NIgeria.
The specific objectives of this research amongst others are to:
- Ascertain whether proper implementation of IMC programmes by an organization especially in the Nigerian soft drinks Industry can help reduce the cost of marketing communications, thereby having effects of minimizing the company’s cost of marketing communications.
- Find out whether the use of IMC by clients (soft drinks producers) through their advertising agencies can bring about profitable long-term client customer relationships.
- Determine whether the proper use of IMC at the different stages of the product life cycle could be a major factor in making the products (soft drinks) to compete effectively in the market thereby recording more customer patronage for the product.
- Establish the level to which the use of IMC by soft drinks producers can influence parents of school children to continue to purchase these products thereby building strong brand loyalty for the products.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- Will proper implementation of IMC programmes by an organization help in reducing the firm’s cost of marketing communications cost thereby having effects of increasing customer patronage through low priced products?
- Can the use of IMC bring about profitable long-term customer relationship between customers and management of Nigerian Soft drinks producers?
- Will the proper use of integrated marketing communication at the different stages of the product’s life cycle make the chosen product to compete effectively in increasing consumer patronage of the products?
- Can the use of IMC influence parents of school children to continue to purchase these soft drinks thereby building strong brand loyalty for the products?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research will be highly significant to producers of soft drinks in many respects. It will assist them on how to send highly impactful messages to their esteemed target audience. It will also assist them on how to save cost of marketing communications in the long run. This will translate to minimization of cost of marketing communication. The outcome of the research will also benefit these producers on how to use marketing communications to build long-term client-customer relationships.
The research will benefit consumers of soft drinks, as the use of IMC will afford consumers with clear, credible and consistent messages. When consumers hear the same messages through advertising, sales promotion, and personal selling (sales force), they (consumers) will have strong faith in such messages and they are likely to do more of those thing which producers of products expect them to do.
The use of IMC will definitely help advertising agencies to achieve better results for their clients’ investments on marketing communications.
This research will also be of immerse importance to the academic sector especially scholars in the field of marketing and marketing communication in particular who want to know the effect that a better coordinated marketing communication tools will have on an organization marketing objectives, consumers patronage, sales growth and market share.
1.6 SCOPE OR DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The study focuses on the impact of Integrated Marketing Communications on consumers’ patronage of soft drinks in Nigeria. The study will be limited to marketers or producers of soft drinks, advertising agencies and consumers of the products. This study will be limited to some selected firms in Port-Harcourt because of distance, and time constraints, these firms include the Nigerian Bottling Company, Denna Rossi Ltd, Emmason and Cherry Fruitmix And Cocktails.
1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The limitations of this study are the problems of time constraint, communication means and finance which set limits to analysis of the data collection. However, in the process of carrying out this study measure and available opportunities will be explored to enhance the success of this research work.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
IMC = An acronym used to refer to Integrated Marketing Communication
4Ps = A memory aid for the marketing mix: product, price, promotion, place, (distribution).
7Ps = A memory aid for the services marketing mix: product, promotion, place, price, process, people and physical evidence.
Above the line: This is the media advertising (often known as the media mix) for which commission is paid to an advertising agency. This includes advertising in the press such as newspaper, magazines, radio, television (by far, the largest) and other media, such as directories cinema, outdoor. (Belch and Belch, 2000)
Below the line: Non-Commission – paying promotion typically all forms except
Advertising. Examples of below the line messages include sales promotion materials, T-Shirts, biro, cups, etc. Belch and Belch, (2000)
Brand Identity: All the outward trappings of a brand i.e. Logo, name, colours, strap line, labels, and packaging.
Brand Switching: Buying an alternative brand. Competitive advantage or competitive edge; something that allows an organization or its product/services that is perceived as being better than rival offerings.
Competitive advertising: Highlights and illustrates the uses, features and benefits that the advertised brand has and its rival do not.
Copywriter: One who writes the words for promotional materials e.g. Adverts.
Customer’s Orientation: The whole organization is focused on the satisfaction of its customers needs.
Dagmar; An acronym that represents “defining Advertising goals for measured advertising results;” Gould, (2000) a hierarchy of effects models describing the stages individuals go through when making a purchase or consumption, decision.
Advertising Practitioner: APCON defines an advertising practitioner as one who is skilled in planning, creating and placing advertisement.
Advertising Agency: This can be defined as a firm or a company that is staffed with people who are advertising practitioners and which render advertising services to its clients. In Nigeria today, notable advertising agencies include Lowe Lintas Ltd, Rosabel Advertising, Insight communications, Pal Communications. Ltd., and STB McCann Advertising Agency amongst others.
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.