ABSTRACT
This project work was an attempt to investigate the impact of marketing mix in the accomplishment of organization objectives. The main objectives were: to identify the impact of marketing mix in the organization. To identify the different approaches used by organization to implement marketing mix. To identify how the management of Unilever Brother Plc should ensure that good strategies should get in plan. Based on the objectives of the study, research questions were formulated. The populations of study were drawn from the users of unilever products in Enugu metropolis. Bourley’s formular was used to determine the sample size. Questionnaires and personal interview were used to elicit data from respondents. Simple tables and percentages were used to analyzed data collected. Based on the analysis, the following findings were made: Marketing mix plays a good role in performance of Unilever Brother’s Nigeria plc. Unilever Brothers Chooses the appropriate marketing mix for the target market. The researcher therefore made the following recommendations; the management of Unilever Brother Nigeria Plc should ensure that good strategies are put in place in presenting their products to the public. People, process and physical evidence which is an other marketing mix in modern economy should be put into.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover Page i
Title page ii
Approval page iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vi
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the study 1
- Statement of the Problem 8
- Purpose of the study 9
- Research Questions 10
- Significance of the study 12
- Scope Delimitation of the Study 15
- Definition of Terms 16
CHAPTER TWO
Review of related literature
- Overview of Marketing Mix 19
- Definitions of Marketing Mix 27
- The Marketing Mix as Tools of Study 29
- Importance of the Marketing Mix 33
- Marketing Concept 36
- Holistic Marketing 37
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
- Source of Data 46
- Population of the Study 46
- Research Instrument 49
- Validity of Research Instrument 49
- Questionnaire Allocation and Administration 50
- Method of Data Analysis and Treatment 51
CHAPTER FOUR
Presentation, analysis, and interpretation
- Presentation, Analysis, and Interpretation 52
CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Summary of Findings 67
- Recommendations 68
- Conclusion 69
Bibliography
Questionnaire
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of the Study
This study practically involves the investigation of marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) in the accomplishment of organization objectives. The marketing mix is a business tool used in determining the effectiveness and efficiency of a firm. The marketing mix is often crucial when determining a product or brand’s unique selling point (the unique quality that differentiates a product from its competitors and is often synonymous with the four Ps price, product, promotion and place.
However, in recent times, the four Ps have been expanded to the seven PS with the addition of process, physical evidence and people.
The term marketing mix was first propound by Mccarthy (1950). It was coined in 1953 by Neil Borden in his American association presidential address. However, thus was actually it reformulation of an earlier idea by his associate, James collation, who is in 1948 described the role of the marketing manager as a mixer of ingredients, who sometimes follows recipes prepared by other, sometimes adapts a recipe from immediately available ingredients and at other time invents new ingredients no else has tried.
The term became popular in the article written by Neil Borden called the concept of the marketing mix. He started teaching the term after he learned about it with an associate.
In the classification of marketing mix, McCarthy (1960) proposed four Ps classifications which has since been widely used by marketer throughout the world. Since consumerism appeared later in the 1960’s four “Cs” (Commodity, cost, channel and communication) theory has been proposed in Japan (1973) and the United Stated (1993).
The four ‘Ps’ consist of the following:
- Product: A product is seen as an item that satisfied what a consumer need or wants. It could be tangible or intangible. Tangible can be seen felt or touched which individuals or groups purchase for household or industrial use while intangible cannot be seen.
Every product is subject to a life-cycle including introduction phase, growth phase followed by maturity phase and finally an eventually period of decline as sales falls. The marketers must also consider the product mix. Marketers can expand the current product mix by increasing a certain product lines depth or by increase the number of product lines. They should consider how to position the product, how to exploit the brand, how to exploit the company’s resources and how to configure the product mix so that each product complements the other. They must also consider product development strategies.
- Price: The price is the amount a customer pays for the product. The price is very important as it determines the company’s profit and hence, survival. Adjusting the price has a profound impact on the marketing strategy and depending on the price elasticity of the product. Often, it will affect the demand and sales as well. The marketers should set a price that complements the others elements of the marketing mix. When setting a price the marketer must be aware of the customer perceived value for the product. Three basic pricing strategies are: marketing skimming pricing, marketing penetration pricing and neutral pricing. The reference value (where the consumers view of this product’s attributes versus the attributes of other products) must be taken into account.
- Promotion: This represents all of the methods of communication that a marketer may use to provide information to different parties about the product. Promotion comprises elements such as advertising, public relations, personal selling and sales promotion.
Advertising covers any communication that is paid for, from cinema commercials, radio and internet advertisements through print media and billboards. Public relations is where the communication is not directly paid for and includes press releases, sponsorship deals, exhibitions, conferences, seminars or trade fairs and events. Word of mouth is any apparently informal communication about the product by ordinary individuals satisfied customers or people specifically engaged to create word of mouth momentum. Sales staff often plays an important role in word of mouth and public relations.
- Place: Refers to providing the product at a place which is convenient for consumers to access. Place is synonymous with distributing various strategies such as intensive distribution, selective distribution, exclusive distribution and franchising can be used by the marketer to complement the other aspects of the marketing mix. The marketing mix elements called product, price, place and promotion these are called the four elements of marketing mix and also called 4ps of the marketing mix.
The marketing mix is actually a sub –system of the organizational system, which in turn is a sub-system of a country’s marketing system from the myriad of the variable in the mix, management must select the combination mix which will best adapt it to the environment and help it achieve its objectives. Here management is seeking the mix which will help it achieve optimum synergistic results. The extents to which the organizations achieves success in mix combination will determine its degree of success in the marketing environment.
A question that needs answering is: how does the company choose the appropriate marketing mix for the target market? The answer is that the company must first study the needs and wants of the market, the position of competitors and decide on what it wants to competitively offer to the market. This presuppose that the company had studies its internal strengths and weakness, properly and carefully, so that it can properly relate to external opportunities and threats.
- Statement of Problems
Recent trends show that marketing organization have through a good combination of the elements of the marketing mix achieved success for goods and services, set market and marketing objectives in socio-economic environment.
Though producer and end users (consumer) have posed considerable obstacles in the combination of these key marketing mix or elements.
The problems associated with the subject of the study are what I am poised to the explore during this work:
- The elements (product, price, promotion, place) of these marketing mix have all been affected by the up-thrust of the prevalent socio-economic environmental practice of marketing.
- It has therefore become very difficult to champion the effectiveness of the marketing mix in the total marketing plan for any given product in Unilever Brothers Nigeria plc.
- Is Unilever Brothers Customer oriented or product oriented in their different approaches used in implementation marketing mix?
- What has been the impact of marketing mix in the organization and how effective can control analysis be put in place to achieve or determine organization objectives.
- Why has Unilever Brothers achieved this immense customer preference for their products.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
These research work is design to express certain point concerning marketing mix in the accomplishment of organization objectives. Below are the objectives sought by the research.
- To identify the impact of marketing mix in the organization.
- To identify the different approaches used by organization to implement marketing mix.
- To find out how organization should be consumer oriented rather than product oriented.
- To identify how the management of Unilever Brothers Nigeria Plc should ensure that good strategies should get in plan.
- To identify how effective control analysis must be put in place.
- Research Question
Based in the research objectives, we are faced with the following questions which will guide my search for material for this research work. In that case the following questions necessary.
- What are the approaches used by marketing managers to implement marketing mix satisfactory?
- Should organization be customers oriented rather than product oriented?
- Should effective marketing test be carried out before a product is commercialized?
- Does good promotion strategies increase turn over of an organization?
- Do you think that affordable price of a product will increase market share of an organization?
.
- Significance of the Study
It is hopes that this study when successful completed and supervised has a lot of roles to play. The study will basically fill a wide vacuum which is greatly essential practitioners experts and scholar in marketing communication and promotion who have been lacking the needed guiding information for their promotion mix decisions, promotional budgeting as well as research studies on promotion.
Furthermore, thus studies by its objectives will not only assess the relative effectiveness for sales but also in communication generally. By this the study will be essential useful to the government agents and also serve as a source of resonant information to government agents on the communication tools to be used in communication creating awareness to masses about government progammes and actives. Politicians and charitable organizations will also or equally make use of this study in their choice of which tools to employed promotion themselves and their programme, manifestatoes and achievements.
A part from those groups marketing executive in various companies in Nigeria have problem in selecting the right promotional tools and in designing their promotional budgets and strategies for their companies. Most of these managers often rely heavily on the guess worker or they simply follow their competitors foolishly without due consideration to their promotion objectives, their product life cycle, position in the industry or the target market which they are aiming at. The study will provide insights to these managers who are having these problems and serve as rich reference point.
Finally, researcher consultants and individuals have been deprived of excellent performance in communication research because of insufficient and scanty data and inadequate liberations available in thus area of study it is hoped that this study when successful completed will be an addition to the essential literatures needs in this vital area of marketing and entrepreneurship. Researches will therefore uses it extensively as a source of their secondary data, based on all these invaluable solutions expected to derived from this study it become indispensable that the need for this study is worthwhile.
- Scope/ Delimination of the Study
This study was carried out in Enugu metropolis on the impact of marketing mix in the accomplishment of organization objectives in Unilever Plc. Some staff of the company was interviewed and relevant information was gathered to build the work. The study covers the impact of marketing mix in the accomplishment of organizational objectives with specific reference to Unilever Plc in Enugu metropolis. There was a critical examination of how Unilever Plc increased the usage of marketing mix as a strategy and platform in accomplishing their organizational objectives.
The study was restricted to the management and staff of Unilever plce and their customers in Enugu metropolis. It will also be extended to marketers of Unilever products.
- Definition of Terms
Therefore, for easy and quick comprehension of this report, the following terms are used:
- Marketing Mix: It is a combination of product, price, promotion and place as a tools used by any organization to device marketing activities and assemble fully integrated marketing programmes that will create, communicate and deliver value to consumers. Marketers make marketing mix decisions for influencing their trade channel as well as their final consumers. (Kotler and Keller 2009:63).
- Product: This is anything that has value which can be offered to someone to satisfy a need or want. It can also be seen as a bundle of benefits or utilities packaged and made available to consumer to satisfy their needs and wants (Ubaka, 2005:9).
- Price: This determine s the right base price of the products a company is offering to the market, and then set up policies on discounts allowances, payments periods, freight payments, credit terms and many other price – related situations, which ultimately affect the list price. (Adirika, Ebue, and Nnolim, 1996:35).
- Promotion: This is one of the component of marketing mix used by organization to inform, educate and persuade the market regarding the company’s offering. This happens with the used of its various variable like; advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity and public relations. (Adirika, Ebue, and Nnolim, 1996:35).
- Place (Distribution): This is also a component of the mix that deals with use of channels for physical handling and transporting of the organizations products to reach the right market, at the right time, in the right quantity and quality and at the right price. (Adirika, Ebue, and Nnolim, 1996:35).
- Organization Objectives: This refers to purpose or aims an organization plans or wishes to do or achieve with the components of marketing mix, which could be short or long term (Ugwu 2009:71).
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