UTILIZATION OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS AS A MARKETING STRATEGY BY MANUFACTURING COMPANIES OPERATING IN CROSS RIVER STATE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The  major  purpose  of  this  study  was  to  examine  the  utilization  of  integrated marketing  communications  as  a  marketing  strategy  by  manufacturing  companies operating  in Cross River State.   Five research  questions  were answered  and three hypotheses  were tested at .05 level of  significance.   The population  for the study consisted   of  129  advertising,   sales  and  marketing  managers  of  manufacturing companies registered with the Cross River State Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The entire population was used for the study.  A survey research design was adopted for the study.   Structured questionnaire was used to generate data for the study.  The instrument was subjected to face validity by five experts, three from the University of Nigeria  Nsukka and two from the University of Calabar, Calabar.   A sample of 30 managers of equivalent companies was randomly drawn from Uyo, Akwa Ibom State for the reliability test.   Cronbach Alpha reliability test was used to  determine  the internal consistency of the instrument and this yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.69. The instrument was then administered on the population and  127 copies were duly completed  and  used  for  data  analysis.    Mean  and  standard  deviation  were  used respectively to analyse the research questions,  while one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses.  The major findings of the study were (1) manufacturing companies in Cross River State were in agreement with almost all the identified  IMC objectives  in the  state  as their  IMC objectives.  (2) Manufacturing companies  in Cross River  State agreed  with seven different  combinations  of IMC tools as being currently utilized  but disagreed  with the use of any of the tools in isolation as a marketing strategy (3) Thirteen factors were identified as encouraging IMC  utilization in Cross River State. (4) There were thirteen perceived benefits of IMC utilization by manufacturing companies in Cross River State. (5) Nine  factors were identified as militating against the achievement of IMC objectives, while eight were identified as non-militating factors. (6) There were no significant differences in the mean responses of advertising, sales and marketing managers on the factors that encourage the IMC utilization. (7) There were no significant differences in the mean responses of managers on the perceived benefits of IMC utilization, (8) there were no significant differences in the mean responses of managers on the factors that militate against   the   achievement   of  IMC   objectives.      It   was   recommended   that   (i) manufacturing  companies  should  adopt proper  combination  of IMC tools as their marketing  strategy,   and  (2)   Workshops   should  be  organized   to  enlighten  the manufacturers about IMC utilization as a marketing strategy.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is described by Kotler and Keller (2006) as a management concept designed to make all aspects of marketing communication tools such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations and publicity, personal selling and direct marketing work together as a unified force rather than permitting each to work in isolation.   This concept has recently become an indispensable marketing strategy utilized by companies to tackle the challenges brought about by changes in business and  marketing  practices.    These  challenges  are  brought about  by major societal   forces   such   as   globalisation,   technological   advances   and deregulation.   Globalisation influences changes in business and marketing practices.  It involves a situation whereby a company operates in more than one country and captures production, logistics, marketing and financial advantages  in  its  costs  and  reputation  that  are  not  available  to  purely domestic competitors (Kotler and Keller, 2006).  Technologically, business and marketing practices are changing.  Marketing communication is carried out now through telephone devices, e-mail, internet, fax, and so on.  These make direct marketing easy; hence sellers and buyers can transact business without  seeing  face-to-face.    Deregulation  of  industries  helps  to  create greater  competition  and  growth  opportunities.    In  the  United  States  of America according to  Kotler and  Keller (2006), long distance  telephone

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companies can now compete in local markets and local phone companies can now offer long distance to create awareness about the usefulness of their products and services among the consumers.

Marketing strategy is the creation  of a unique valuable  marketing position involving a different set of activities in order to achieve marketing objectives.  It is a game plan designed by companies for getting marketing objectives achieved.  Every business must design a strategy for achieving its goals (Porter, 1996).

Marketing  is  seen  by  Kotler  (2004)  as  a  social  and  managerial function.  Socially, Kotler defined marketing as a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and services of value with others. Managerially, Kotler sees marketing as the art of selling products produced by manufacturing companies.  Manufacturing company is any company that engages  in  processing or  making  products  from raw materials. Manufacturing companies take the raw materials and change their forms to fit the needs of specific consumers.

Consumers buy and make use of the goods and services produced by the manufacturing companies.  According to Osuala (1993), a consumer is the person who actually uses the products or services available in the community.  Consumers are the ultimate end in the production process and the  means  of  reaching  them  is  marketing.    The  aim  of  manufacturing

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companies is to inform, persuade, remind and reinforce the consumers about their products and services.  This forms the basis for the formulation of IMC objectives,  (Kotler,  2004).     According  to  Kotler,  IMC  objectives  are classified according to whether to inform, persuade, remind and reinforce. Oyedijo  (1996),  stated  that  since  the  overall  objective  of  marketing promotion is to inform, persuade, remind and reinforce, all the approaches involved in setting IMC objectives must meet the functions of marketing.  It is necessary that companies  set objectives that are  achieveable  within  a specific frame of time.  Ebitu (2003) noted that setting broad objectives that are  too  difficult  and  qualitative  to  measure  may  at  the  end,  achieve something different from what the company intended to achieve.  Effective utilization  of  IMC  tools  is  determined  by  knowing  tasks  they  can  best perform and matching the IMC tools to them (Kotler, 2004).

Advertising as an IMC tool is cost-effective way to disseminate information whether to build a brand preference or to educate people. According to Kotler and Keller (2006), advertising is any paid form of non- personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods ands services by an identified sponsor.  Sales promotion on the other hand, is a key ingredient in marketing campaigns.  It consists of a collection of incentive tools, mostly short-term designed to stimulate quicker and greater purchase of products or services by consumers or the trade.  Public relations is a systematic effort by a company to identify, create, promote and sustain a favourable relationship

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and goodwill capable of portraying the company in a good light with its publics.      Personal   selling   involves   interpersonal   or   person-to-person approach to communication.   It is a face-to-face contact of a company’s representative with target markets.  Direct marketing as an IMC tool is an art of utilizing customer direct (CD) channels or routes direct mail, catalogue, telemarketing, interactive TV, kiosk, websites and mobile devices to market goods and  services  to  consumers  without  going through  the  middleman (Kotler and Keller, 2006).

In companies advertising managers are staff responsible for the formulation of advertising objectives, strategies, prepare budget, select and use   the   media,   select   messages   as   well   as   measuring   advertising effectiveness.   Above all, advertising managers device means of contact with the consumers.  Sales managers on the other hand, see to the promotion or increase of sales volume through sales promotion.  Marketing managers are concerned with the directing the flow of companies goods and services. They identify, anticipate and satisfy customer requirements profitably and efficiently.    They  determine  consumers’  needs  and  wants  and  device  a means of satisfying them (Esu, 2003).

In Nigeria, companies utilize integrated marketing communications to introduce new products and services.   Okwelume (2005), found out that some companies in Enugu State utilize IMC to introduce new products to customers.  Manufacturing companies in developing countries like Nigeria

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benefit from the utilization of IMC.   According to Burman (1995), manufacturing companies render educational, health, legal and other industrial services to their customers within most countries of the world. Similarly, Skolnik (2002), explained that in utilizing IMC tools a company becomes a cohesive unit with a single overall goal based on maximising awareness among its target audience.  The company also makes sure that the message gets consistently across all communication channels.

Despite the uniqueness of IMC tools, certain factors tend to militate against the achievement of its objectives.   O’Donohoe, (1995), stated that some consumers see certain IMC tools such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity and personal selling as misleading, untruthful, and deceitful. Manufacturing companies face some ethical and legal issues that tend to militate  against  their effective  use of marketing  communication  tools in isolation.   Bearden, Ingran and Larforge (1995) observed that as database lists   become   more   sophisticated   as   a   result   of   globalization   and technological  advances,  there  is an  increased  concern  about  invasion  of customers’ privacy.  The capital outlay required to carry out effective IMC tends to constrain the achievement of its objectives.  Kurtz (1993), revealed that  IMC  is  often  hampered  by huge amount  of money  involved  in  its utilization.   Despite these and other militating factors, the benefits of integrated marketing communications cannot be ignored.

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Statement of the problem

The success of every company in marketing its products and services depends largely on its ability to create awareness about the usefulness of its products and services.      Kotler and Keller (2006), maintained that wide range of communication tools, messages and audiences makes it imperative that companies move towards utilizing IMC, hence the need for companies to utilize integrated marketing communication tools to reach their numerous consumers, (Kotler, 2004).   Similarly, changes in business and marketing practices created by some societal forces resulting from globalisation, technological advances and deregulation, have resulted to the use of IMC by companies.   This is because  the utilization  of marketing communication tools in isolation tends to be ineffective in introducing their products and services to the customers.  Companies in Nigeria also utilize IMC to inform, persuade and  remind  their consumers about  their  products and  services. Okwelume (2005) revealed that some selected manufacturing companies in Enugu State utilize IMC to introduce their products and services.

Despite the uniqueness of IMC tools, their utilization in isolation for marketing practices, has some inherent problems.  O’Donohoe (1995), stated that marketing promotion strategies engender some concerns among consumers who complain that marketing communication tools in isolation are misleading, untruthful and deceitful.  The poor nature of some firms has led to their inability to afford the campaign because of millions of naira

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involved.    Kurtz  (1993), revealed  that  IMC  is  often  hampered  by huge amount of money involved in its utilization.

Furthermore, the level of adult literacy in Nigeria seems not to enable most consumers to get the messages through the use of marketing communications tools in isolation.  There appears to be very few empirical studies that revealed the utilization of IMC by manufacturing companies in Nigeria.   The present study therefore, examined the utilization of IMC by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State of Nigeria.

Purpose of the study

The  major  purpose of the  study is to determine  the utilization  of integrated marketing communications as a marketing strategy by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State.

Specifically, the study ascertained:

1.       The manufacturing companies objectives for IMC utilization in Cross

River State.

2.       The  IMC tools that are  currently being utilized  by manufacturing companies in Cross River State.

3.       The   factors   that   encourage   the   utilization   of   IMC   tools   by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State.

4.       The perceived benefits of utilization of IMC tools by manufacturing companies in Cross River State of Nigeria.

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5.       The factors that militate against the achievement of IMC objectives by manufacturing companies in Cross River State of Nigeria.

Significance of the study

The findings of this study, when published, would be of benefit to the manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State.  The findings on the  IMC  utilized  to  create  awareness  about  companies’  products  and services would enable the manufacturing companies in Nigeria to adopt the IMC as a marketing strategy in order to cope with the changes in business and marketing practices.  This would help to increase the sales volume and profit margins of the companies.

The findings would enable the marketing, advertising and sales managers of the manufacturing companies to be aware of the factors that militate  against  the  achievement  of  IMC  objectives.    Furthermore,  the findings would be of benefit to the managers and supervisors.   It would assist them in formulating achievable  IMC objectives  that would enable them achieve accelerated marketing practices which would enhance maximization of sales volume.

The findings of the study would benefit the consumers of industrial and consumer goods.   It would enable effective information about the companies’ goods and services through communication from the managers of the companies to the consumers.  This allows the consumers access to the current information about products and services they consume.   In a free

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market  system,  it  is  necessary  to  educate  consumers  on  products  and services offerings to guide them on their purchase decision-making.  Finally, the findings would enable marketing educators and students to gain more knowledge about the utilization of IMC by manufacturing companies.  The findings of the study would contribute in no small measure to the existing literature in marketing.

Research questions

The study will answer the following research questions:

1.       What are the manufacturing companies objective for IMC utilization in Cross river State?

2.       What are the IMC tools currently being utilized by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State?

3.      What are the factors that encourage the utilization of IMC by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State?

4.       What are the perceived benefits of utilizing IMC by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State of Nigeria?

5.       What  are  the  factors  militating  against  the  achievement  of  IMC objectives  by  manufacturing  companies  operating  in  Cross  River State of Nigeria?

Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance:

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Ho1:  There were no significant differences in the mean responses of marketing,  advertising  and  sales  managers  on  the  factors  that encourage  the  utilization   of  IMC  by  manufacturing  companies

operating in Cross River State of Nigeria.

Ho2:  There were no significant differences in the mean responses of marketing, advertising and sales managers on the perceived benefits of  utilizing  IMC  by manufacturing  companies  operating  in  Cross River State of Nigeria.

Ho3:  There were no significant differences in the mean responses of marketing, advertising and sales managers on the factors that militate against the achievement of IMC objectives by manufacturing companies operating in Cross River State of Nigeria.

Delimitation of the study

The study is delimited to the integrated marketing communication tools  like  advertising,  sales  promotion,  public  relations  and  publicity; personal selling and direct marketing.

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