THE IMPACT OF MARKETING RESEARCH ON THE MARKETING PERFORMANCE OF SOFT DRINK IN NIGERIA.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

From the definition of marketing which says that marketing the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the point of production to the point of consumption with combination of the definition that says it is the identification, anticipation and at a profit to the firm.

To achieve the above stated objectives and goals of marketing, there must be effective marketing research to enable the marketing to actualize his/her objectives.

Therefore, our concern in this chapter is to known what marketing research is how to actualize sales, to know whom our market target is, what they want and when they want and make it available for them at the appropriate time.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Marketing is said to be the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the point of production to the point of consumption. It is the identification, anticipation and efficient satisfaction of consumer at a profit to the firm. In the achievement of the above stated objectives and goals of marketing. Marketing can not be achieved without marketing research.

Therefore, what is marketing research? Before answering the question let me first state that the success of any given firm in the saturated market depends to a large extend on the ability to provide want satisfying product. The extent to which a product satisfies a consume is based on the ability of the producer to understand what the consumer actually needs.

Marketing research therefore provides the avenues through which the needs and satisfied. Marketing research gives the information on what to produce as well as the best segment of the market that offers the best opportunity. Hence through research firms identify visible segments that can profitable cultivate. Onuoha. J. Kelechi.

Marketing management (2007:109).

Rehaps a better understanding of the measuring of marketing research should start with a proper appreciation of the words, marketing and research. Marketing has been defined above as a student of marketing; we know that market has to do with the production, pricing, distribution and promotion of goods and services in such a way that the interest of both the producer and consumer are satisfied. The longman’s dictionary of contemporary English gives the following meaning to research.

service study of a subject that is interested to discover new facts or test new ideals.the activity of finding information about something that you are interest in or need to know about.to study the subject in detail especially in order to discover new facts or test new ideas.to supply all the necessary fact and information about something.The marriage of the meaning of two words gives a clear and better understanding of the term marketing research. Ezirim Aloy Chinedu 2004:12).

Marketing research is finding out who the customers are and what they want (modern A R 1987:35) from the definition one can observe that the aim of the market research is to identify the customers and what they likely want in future. The function of conducting marketing research is that of the marketing department to organization to avoid bias firm are asked to employ the service of independent marketing consultants or jointly carry it out the information gathered through market research can be useful in taking informed decision.

The areas where (Okafor 1998: 32-33) felt that information from market research can be applied include the following:

who and where are the customers located and what are they like?who are the organization non –buyers and what are their reasons for not buying?how many producers are in the particular industry?what is the size of the market?How viable is the market?A number definition have been put for ward on this concept. According to Paterson R.A (1982:47) marketing research is an objective formal process for systematically obtaining analysis and interpreting data for the purpose of providing actionable information for marketing decision making. To onuoha J. kelechi and bassi BP (2004:16) marketing research is the systematic acquisition of data and its analysis for the purpose of solving marketing problems.

Perhaps the simplest way of explaining the chitterence between marketing research and marketing research could be seen form their coverage as shown below wilmishurst John (1978:123) indicated that profit oriented firms conduct marketing research in the following areas:

Product research: new product screening, product acceptance, packaging, pricing.

Sales operation research: sales forces effectiveness, sales territories, channel of distribution, oracle attitude, sales statistics sales forecasting

user market research: size of market, market potential trends within market, market share analysis

economic and Business research: economic trends and forecast, business trends and forecast political trends and forecast social trends and forecast competitive intelligences, inter company/ inter industry comparisons. Onuoha J Kelechi (2007: 112). The American marketing Association defines marketing research as the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services” this is a broad definition starting, in effects, that marketing research includes investigation of market segments, product differentiation, channel relationship, effectiveness of salesmen and advertising, pricing product and so forth. The point to emphasize is that marketing research is not restricted to research the major type of marketing problem but applies to every phase of marketing.

The essential purpose of any marketing research is to provide data which well facilitate the identification of marketing problem for solution to be proffered.