CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Marketing is the management process aimed at identifying, anticipating, analysis and satisfying human needs and wants through exchanges as efficiently and effectively as possible (Adirika, 1990:38)

Its concept is a philosophy of business which states that the customer want-satisfaction is the economic and social justification for a firms is existence.  However, no matter how a new product completely meets the requirements of the consumers, its existence has to be made known to the consumers, hence, the need for advertising which serves as an awareness creation.

Equally, the multiplication of Production company in Owerri municipal implies that for a firm in the industry to survive, grow or improve its markets share, it must control its market share, it must direct its energies towards some form of new product high quality development, fair pricing, effective promotional,  activities, and wide distribution network. Besides competitors, the growth of this industry creates other problems which include that by presenting a variety of choice to the customers, the management of the company face the problem of identifying which of these varieties that exert greatest influence on consumer preference on one brand of Production company in Owerri municipal new product over the other.  This has led to the policy of most companies marketing department investing so heavily on advertising as the surest means of reaching their target markets.   Owerri municipal businessmen always neglect the role of advertising in business because of their pursuit for quick money and profits. They often erroneously regard advertising expenditure as money wasted.  This is unfortunate indeed, advertising is perhaps the most effective way of communicating with customers and the general public.  Through advertising, a company communicates the information a consumer needs to evaluate a new product or the ability of the company to offer a new product or service.

Advertising can be inform of newspaper and magazine, direct mail trade exhibitions, television, radio, catalogue, new product demonstration etc.

Finally, the role of advertising in motivating consumers, play a major role in all the Production company in Owerri municipal.  Some consumers are being moved by the nature of advertisement of a particular new product irrespective of the price attached to it.

1.1  STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In any competitive marketing environment such as ours, a marketing manager is often faced with the problems of how to determine the nature of demand for his new products in a given market segment, how to determine the factors responsible for the variations in the demand pattern.

Management of  producing company in  Owerri municipal is faced with the problem of not only identifying suitable strategies to beat their competitors but also how to determine the strength of the contributions of various components of the promotional mix variables of the purpose of stimulating demand for their new product brand. This has equally led to different company’s budgetary allocation and policy emphasis on different components of promotional mix.

Thus, the problem of this research is to find out how far advertising has contributed in motivating consumer new product brand preference for Production company in Owerri municipal.

1.2  OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Advertising as a promotional; mix among other things at influencing, consumer of selecting a particular new product or service instead of competing brand of similar new product during their purchase decisions.

This study therefore, seeks to examine the market acceptance of companies in Owerri metropolis with a view to establishing the extent to which consumer’s preference of their product over other Production company in Owerri municipal

can be attributed to advertising.  Therefore, the objectives of this study are:

To determine whether advertisement appeal or theme is the reason why consumers prefer product than the other in Owerri municipal.

To identify the cause and kind of differences in consumer preference of the companies new product under study.

To determine the extend to which consumption of the new product is being influenced by  advertising.

To determine the strength of advertising relative to the other factors in motivating consumer awareness of new products under study.

To suggest ways of improving advertising campaign strategy for Production company in Owerri municipals new product marketing to be more effective.

1.3  HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION

The following hypotheses will be tested.

Ho:  Most consumers are not aware of new product through advertising.

Hi:  Most consumers are aware new product through advertising.

Ho:  Consumer brand preference for new product is not influenced by exposure to advertising message.

Hi:  Consumer brand preference for new product is influenced by exposure to advertising message.

Ho:  There is no significant relationship between the advertising of new products and sales volume of the organization.

Hi:  There is significant relationship between the advertising of new products and sales volume of the organization.

1.4  SIGNIFICANCE  OF THE STUDY

It is intended that the result of this study will help the companies in  Owerri municipal in the following ways:

To be in a position to make their new product meet the needs of their customers.

To help the consumers ascertain the quality of the+9ir new product and the benefits derive in consuming the new product.

It will facilitate the work of other people mostly researchers who many in one way or the other engage in a similar research in future.

The reader with also benefit form this work became it will help them in building their own study when carrying out the academic research.

It will expose the opportunities and threats facing the competitors and the need to affect changes so that the company can grow positively.

1.5  SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study is a case study of consumers in  Owerri municipal.  Due to the size and spread of the company, the study is limited only to consumers of  companies in Owerri metropolis.

1.6  DEFINITION OF TERMS

ADVERTISING:  It is a non-personal form of communication or presentation of goods, ideas or services conducted through paid media under clear sponsorship (Kotler P. 1987, 2nd Edition)

CONSUMER NEW PRODUCTS:  They are those new products used by the final consumers that are not industrial new products (Ozo 2002.120)

BRAND PREFERENCE:  Is a situation where the consumer selects a particular new product that will satisfy his needs and wants.  (Journal o Consumer Research. 1982. 185). CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR:  Is whatever the consumer does in the process of satisfying his/her needs. (Ozo 2002. 10)

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