ANALYSIS OF PROMOTION MIX AS TOOLS OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION. A CASE STUDY OF UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

In deciding on how to properly utilize the marketing communication mix to meet organization objectives, it is important to consider the relatives strength and weakness of each of the component of promotional mix.  Many companies recognizes the need to integrate their various marketing communication efforts, such as  media advertising, personal selling, sales promotion public relations, and direct marking to achieved more effective marking communication.

The company also develops its integrated marketing mix such as price, place/distribution, product, and promotion which consist of promotional mix as mention earlier. The integration of all these promotional tools along with other components of marketing mix to gain edge over competitions which is called integrated marketing communication. The marketers used these tools promotional mix in meeting their customer needs and want.

Further, the organization always defines its total budget first (generally define in the marketing another business plan) and then decide on the best way to leverage  the different element of the mix as mentioned above in order to maximizes the return on its investment. It should also balance the various parts of the promotional mix elements to not only create an integrated approach but to its marketing communication which as to devote enough resources for each component to be successful.                             

In marketing communication, promotional mix are important tools to consider by every organization for the purpose of attaining organizational objectives through marketing strategies in order to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers.

The major concerned of this research is to talk upon those promotional mixes of the organization which include.

Advertising as one of the tools of promotional mix which used by companies penetrating, informing and reaching large, geographical dispersed audience, and often of high  frequency; low cost per exposure, through over all costs are high; the consumers perceive advertised goods as more legitimate, dramatizes company/brand, builds brand, image which may stimulate short – term sales, impersonal  and one way communication. Advertising is seen as one way of communication which company used to pass information or create awareness about than product in services to the targeted audience. In this regard advertising is also viewed as any paid form of non – personal communication through media by an identified sponsor.

On the other hand, personal selling is the most effective tool for building buyers preferences, convictions and actions. Personal interaction allows for feed back and adjustment. Relationship oriented, buyer are more attentive, sales force represent long term commitment which is most expensive of the promotional tools. The sales force is indeed the link between organization and their customer. They have dual responsibilities in many respects. They pass information in the form of massage firm organization to customer and bring back report from the customers, to the organization ( ie feedback).

In personal communication feed back is often instantaneous through verbal acknowledge or gesture but in impersonal communication through the mass media, it may have to be infered from other indicatiors such as audience size circulation or monitor by sampling opinion. The theory of marketing communication reveals that their must be the communication, massage, channel, audience and the fed back. The communicator is the sender of the message ie the source. The message is the set of meaning being send to received by the audience. While channel are the ways in which the message can be carried to the audience. The audience represent the receiver or the destination of the message.

On the order hand sales promotion which is one of the various ways of communicative with customers.

In recent years, the need to boost periodical sales in terms of economic slump has called for the extensive use of sales promotion activities in order to put the sales trends in a normal course. It is used to remind the customers about the existence of companies goods and service. Sales promotion is the activities which we typically called advertising but do not use mass media.  The main value of sales promotion can be seen at the point of purchase. It support advertising and personal selling, but it is rarely use alone as the major promotional tool. Sales promotion technique and designed to add something extra to promotion that will encourage an exchange. They can be used to attract new customers to bring about  repeat purchase and to promote off season product. In many highly competition industries, the quality of sales promotion many be the deciding factor in obtaining sales.

Another tool of promotion mix is public relation which is one of the most important tools in building relationship with companies publics. Either internally or externally. Public relations which serve as a planned that sustained effort and maintain mutual understanding and good will with organizational publics. It is used to pass good news or stories to the targeted customer about the organizations goods or service. It is  also highly credible, very believable. Many forms of news or stories are pass to the audience. ie  Features events and sponsorship are created. The public relation used to reaches many prospects missed via other forms of promotion mix. Dramatizes Company of product. Often, the most the under used element in the promotion mix. Relatively in expensive (certainly not “tree” as many people think than an costs involved).

Lastly but not the least, direct marketing is among the promotional mix that aid in promoting goods from point of manufacturing to the point of sales.

The direct communication with carefully targeted individual consumer to obtain an immediate response and cultivate lasting customer relationships. It include various forms as telephone marketing direct mail, online marketing, etc. four distraction characteristic eg non public, immediate, customized and interactive which are well suited to highly targeted marketing efforts.

1.1   STATEMENT OF GENERAL PROBLEM

The current economic situation has forced most business organization to sell and operate in dynamic and competitive environment. This has made the sales men to engaged in many activities by putting a lot of time, energy and traveling extensively as well as making the organization  to embark on the with promotional activities  in order to sustain the organization growth and up to meet the customers satisfaction. The promotional mix in marketing communication constitute a lot and problems in other way around. These are:

A      ADERTISING

1. The company inability to plan for advertising budget.
2. The company inability to develop media plan and strategies
3. Inability to ensure complete coverage of the market potential buyers.
4. Company inability to afford the opportunity to harness the hidden values and the media.
5. The problem of one medium to complement the other media in use.
6. Advertising effect on sales is not usually immediate
7. When the companies refuse to draw attention to the changes in product features
8. Inability to correct wrong or negative impressions or rumour about the component its product.

B      PERSONAL SELLING:

1. The company’s inability to communicate and recognize customers true needs.
2. Improper planning and co-ordination of activities, implementation and acquisition of feed back.
3. Limited acknowledge of product offerings especially goods and service where nature is highly technical
4. Most sales men portray  poor quality personality especially in their appearance, intelligences and sense  humor
5. The company inability to deliver this right product at the right time
6. Discriminatory attitudes toward certain customers and giving preferential treatment to some customer instead of all customers particularly in the area of personal selling.

C      SALES PROMOTION

1. Lack of adequate enlightment of customers on promotion.
2. The promotion may not be successful as a result of conservative attitude of the customer because of doubt they have about the credibility of sponsor that is failure to meet up their promises of prizes.
3. When promises of benefits are  not for items purchase which could tarnish company image and possibly make the company loose its customers to competitors
4. Poor strategies for delivering the products as samples to the target consumers
5. Insufficiency of product testing will regard the sales promotion
6. Lack of sponsoring events or creation is resulting to the problem of sales promotion

D      PUBLIC RELATION

1. The public relation inability to provide news or stories about organization and its product to the target customers
2. Insufficiency of public relation executives to provide information to organization about its customers.
3. Inability to provide voluntory activities to the community.
4. The lack of events participation by public relation executions.
5. The problem of organism special events
6. The inability to sponsor events.

E      DIRECT MARKETING:

1. The channel of distribution is very poor.
2. When they cannot met the needs and wants of the customer
3. Inadequate provision of database management.
4. Direct selling is sometimes a problem to the direct marketing

Improper directs mail to the target customers.

1.2   BACKGROUND TO THE SUBJECT MATTER

The consumer is regarded as the sovereign (king) in the marketing concept. Marketing activities today are based on how base to satisfy the consumers. The marketing efforts of any company should be based on how best to ensure that after the development of a product, determination of accept price, choice of a better  promotional strategy which should involve much of sales promotion to urge the customers adhered to the product is further planned out and strongly followed. Advertising is just to create awareness through media channel about company and goods and services. Personal selling is simply to make sales on individual basis. sales person serve as a link between the selling and buying system. A public relations is often creation of mutual understanding and promote good with the company’s publics. Direct marketing, this can be seen as direct connection with company’s customer through e –mail, telephone, mail fax etc as well as to cultivate relationship directly with a prospects. today, sales person’s are require to have more education and technical training than did their predecessors. Sales people have many resource at their disposal and are better equipped to develop long term relationship with buyers. They are backed up with a team of specialist including market researchers, financial experts, and engineers. Beginners most apparently understand that the dual basis by all commercial activities is the purchase/sales transaction. Such transactions need a sales person to provide a link between this all. Without such link, producer have no outlets for their increasing needs. To meet the challenge of linking production and consumption will require the efficient services of the sales people.

This is because no matter how good for products are, how attraction your prices are and how efficient and effective your message are, the actual sales transaction or exchange  process or otherwise, the action is affected  by the sales person and the promotional activities that the company embark upon.

It is only when goods or services get to the hands of the final  consumer/user that process of product of production is completed. To be able to achieve this effectively, personnel selling and sales promotion, advertising, public relation as well direct marketing will have to be employed.

1.3   RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY;

A study of this nature will benefit all organization that make use of advertising, personal selling, sale promotion, public relation and direct marketing activities as tools and marketing communication in the sense that the write up will inform and educate more about the objectives and important of these promotional mix. The study will also be of great help to all consumers involve in sales promotional programmer.

The current and potential customers of unilever in particular.

Apart from the above, it is a partial full liberate of the requirement for the award as Higher National Diploma (HND) in marketing.

It will also serve as a reference and guide to students, lecturers and general public at large who may like to write on a related topic.

I   Consider this writing as on opportunity to broaden my knowledge

    and to give the practical  experience in my profession.

1.4   THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY

It is the intention of the research to lover unilever as a case study so as to know the actual impact of personal selling, sales promotion, advertising, public relation and direct marketing as tools of marketing communication.

It is also intention to highlight the marketing communication and relationship of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relation and direct marketing to communication process. the research will cover such areas of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relation and direct marketing  to the nature, classification of sales promotion, types of sales manship, importance  of personal selling, advertising, pulling relation, direct marketers, the major steps in effective selling, sales  promotion, personal selling, advertising, public relation as well as direct marketing techniques, target audience and  objectives. Hence, the research as chosen to undertake this research work to cover the period of 2009/2010.

1.5   THE LIMITATION CONSTRINTS:

However, it important to state that this research work has not been without constraints. Some of these constraints are as follows:

a      Difficulty in generally information: The attitude of our society  towards uestionnaire completion is not very encouraging. Thus, the companies political were not readily willing to respond objective to questionnaire.

b      Insufficient funds available to carryout this study is another great limiting factor.

        To buy all the material needed for the research, the several trips taken to the company in search of information, the cost of typing and binding the project requiresof lost of fund which are not reality available.

c       Time – time is another great limited to the study. The questionnaire designs, distribution, completion, collection and the analysis of the data took a great deal of the short time at the disposal of the researcher.

1.6   DEFINITION OF MAJOR TERMS.

1      vertising: This is defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.

2      personal selling: This is personal presentation by firms sales

force for the purpose of making sales and building customer relationships.

3      Sales promotion: it is short term incentives to encourage

purchase or sales of a product and services.

1. Public relation: this is building good relation with company

various publics by obtaining favorable publicity in building of good corporate image, and handling or heading off unfavorable rumor, stories and event which involve following tools such as press relation, product publicity, corporate communication, lobbying, and counseling.

1. Direct marketing: Direct connection with carefully target

individual consumer to obtain an immediate respond and cultivate lasting customer relationship and the use of telephone, mail, fail, e – mail, the internet and other tools to communication directly with specific consumers.

1. Marketing communication: This is a mention through which

marketers communicate with their target market.

Marketing mix: This is the combination of decision on the controllable variables (product, price, place and promotion) that spell out market strategies.

1. Dealer: it is middlemen involve in distribution chain for buying 

good in order to sell them usually but not always to the general public as well.

1. Sales force: This is a group of employees of a firm (as

salesman) who sell or persuade buyer to buy the company’s product or services directed by national regional sales manager.

8         Salesmanship: This is the art of successfully Persuading the customer or consumer to buy product or service form which thing can have or derive suitable benefit than by increasing the total satisfaction.

9      Above the line:  This is Promotional activities for which

commission (fees) is paid by the sponsor.

10    Below the lime: This is promotional activities for which no commission Is paid by the company (sponsor)

11    Prospecting: This involves hunting for name of or leads to potential buyers it has to do with identify prospects.

12    Sales approach: This is an attempt made by this salesman to attract prospect attention.

13    Promotional mix: This is are elements use to arrange  promotional activities  selected  by company’s

14    Price: This is the amount that a consumer is ready to park with in order to get a given product.

15     Marketing: This is the process of planning and executing the

conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas good and service to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.

16    Respondent: This refer to a person who respondent to question in a survey whether by personal interviews or questionnaire or through the telephone.

17    Marketing strategy: This refer to ways that marketing mix (product, price place promotion) is blended in order to achieved marketing  objectives

18    Communication process: it is a source that trying to reach a receiver with a message.

19    Market research: This is a systemic of gathering analysis and interpreting information by marketers in order to solve problem.