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ABSTRACT

This project work is a study on the analysis of marketing orientation and firms performance within the Nigerian business environment using Dufil Prima Nig. Plc. Located in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The major aim of this study was to ascertain the relationship between marketing orientation-a business philosophy which regards the customer as the king-and the performance of firms with a focus on Dufil Prima Nig. Plc. Makers of indomie noodles. Three research questions were posed viz (1) to what extent does marketing orientation impact on the market share of firms, (2) to what extent does marketing orientation impact on the profitability of firms, (3) to what extent does marketing orientation impact on the sales volume of firms. Three hypotheses thus were formulated correspondingly. The research design used was the survey (i.e the quasi experimental design) research design. A total of twenty (25) staff from Dufil Prima Nig. Plc. Located in Port Harcourt were selected and surveyed for this study. Data collected using questionnaires were presented and analysed with simple percentages, frequency tables, regression and correlation (Pearson Product Moment Correlation) analysis. The results of Ho1, Ho2 and H03 showed that: (1) There is a significant and positive relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ market share,(2) There is a significant and positive relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ profitability (3) There is a significant and positive relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ sales volume. The findings from the analyzed data also shows that that there is a high degree or level of implementation of the concept in Dufil Prima Nig. Plc. It was hence concluded by this study that: firms by being marketing oriented (whereby they see their customers as kings) whereby they generate intelligence about the needs, wants, taste and preferences of current and potential customers, and disseminates these intelligence across the firm and subsequently respond to the intelligence by providing these identified needs, wants etc. more than their competitors, would positively and significantly improve their performance, specifically their market share, profitability and sales volume. Hence, the conclusions of this study beyond doubt supports the notion in extant marketing literature where marketing orientation is purported by several scholars and authors to have a strong positive link with organizational performance. Hence, the study recommends that: (i) Firms should (by being marketing oriented) keep engaging in the gathering of information about customers, (current and potential), and also engage in the dissemination of such information across the various units or departments of the firm and as well respond to such information as this can go a long way to improve their performance, (ii) Firms should adopt and encourage a culture of innovativeness by being market driving whereby it does not always wait for information or feedback from customers before coming up with new or innovative products or services as this can to some extent help improve their performance. Hence, they should endeavour to foster a culture of creativity, pro-activity, entrepreneurship, flexibility and employee adaptability.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Prior to the 21st century production orientation as a system of marketing dominates the economic system of the world more especially from the beginning of capitalism. This was as a result of the business concerned that was prevailing with focus on production, and manufacturing efficiency.

Since production was the major driver of the economy, if a product is made somebody will eventually want to buy it. This was captured in Say’s law that supply creates its demand. As such many business outfit and organization bought into the production concept or production orientation marketing system. This orientation dominated then because there was shortage of manufactured goods and consumers were not satisfied with the manufactured goods available or produced at that time.

By the middle of 1950’s supply was standing to out place demand in many industries. Firms had to concentrate on the ways of selling their produced goods. Various selling techniques were all developed during this period, the marketing and sales department had an exalted position in a company organizational structure. Prominent marketing techniques developed were advertising and sales promotion program. Pricing was usually based on comparison with competitive firms. Implication of this orientation are:

Product line were narrow, pricing was based on the cost of production and distribution, research was directed to technical product research, marketing was designed primarily to protect the products production and advertisement was minimized.

Base on the short coming of production, marketing orientation was adopted in a firm focusing its effort on:

 Continuously collecting information about customer needs and competitors.

 Sharing these collected information among various functional units,

 Using the information to create customer value.

Unlike the production concept, marketing orientation simply defines an organization as that which understand the importance of customer needs, make an effort to provide product of high value to its customer and market product and services in a coordinated holistic program across all department, in what we call the “marketing concept” the company embraces a philosophy that the customer is the king. Marketing orientation thus is an attitude. It is a philosophy that is driven down throughout the organization from the very top of the management structure. The marketing orientation communicates that the customer is king, everything that the company does focuses on the customer. Via the marketing orientation, a company makes every effort to meet the needs of its target market and to do this better than the competition.

The marketing orientation embraced in the 21st century resulted in companies looking at their overall marketing efforts. This includes how their marketing affect society as a whole the assessment is also done internally within the company.

Without a customer a company will quickly flounder. Thus the importance of the relationship. Holistic marketing looks at the connectivity of the company, its people, its customer and the society in which it operates.

This study thus seek to explore the marketing orientation concept as it relates to the business performance of firms using Dufil Prima Nig. Ltd as a case study.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Over the years, some rising questions have been: (i) what is the philosophy that guides the marketing efforts of firms; (ii) what is the relative impact of this philosophy to organizational performance, the customer and the society. Several business orientations or concept such as the marketing orientation had been used in order to achieve marketing goals by firms.

Thus, some thoughts comes to mind which would be worthwhile to explore. These are:

 The way an operative firm grab or understand the marketing orientation techniques and how it uses it in its day to day transaction.

 The effect of marketing orientation the firms performances when used in its day to day business operations.

This study hence seeks to shed light on the above using Dufil Prima Nig. Ltd as a case study.

1.3 PURPOSE OF STUDY

This study generally sought to explore the relationship between marketing orientation and the performance of firms. Specifically, it sought to determine the following:

i) The extent to which marketing orientation impact on firms’ market share.

ii) The extent to which marketing orientation impact on firms’ profitability.

iii) The extent to which marketing orientation impact on firms’ sales volume.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION

In a bid to achieve the objectives of this study, the researcher was guided by the following research questions;

i) To what extent does marketing orientation impact on firms’ market share.

ii) To what extent does marketing orientation impact on firms’ profitability.

iii) To what extent does marketing orientation impact on firms’ sales volume.

1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were put forward as a guide to this study.

Ho1: There is no significant relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ market share.

Ho2: There is no significant relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ profitability.

Ho3: There is no significant relationship between marketing orientation and firms’ sales volume.

1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

Previous writers have contributed immensely in the areas of marketing orientation as it relates to business performance. These contributions form part of the body of knowledge in the marketing profession worldwide. Building on these research work, the present study attempts to examine the impact of marketing orientation strategies on firms’ performance. As such, the findings and results from this study is believed by the researcher would provide further knowledge which will be added to the growing body of knowledge in the marketing profession in this area. Besides, philosophy has made us to understand that man is ever anxious to know. And so, it hoped that the findings from this study would serve as a frame work for future researches in this area.

1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

This study was limited to the study of the relationship between marketing orientation and business performance of firms’ using Dufril prima Nig. Ltd as a case study.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Here we gave concept definition to some of the terms used in this study to eliminate likely misunderstanding among readers.

Marketing – this is referred as the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationship in order to capture value from customers in return (Kotler and Armstrong, 2008).

Marketing Orientation- this is seen as the philosophy of doing business whereby the customer is seen as the King whose satisfaction leads to the achievement of organisational goals.

Market: this is the set of actual and potential buyers of a product

Firms Performance: For this study, this is viewed as the performance of a firm with respect to the level or ratings of its market share, profitability and sales volume.