CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
African Banking Corporation which established its first branch in Lagos was the first bank to open its doors in 1892. The colonial masters established the bank solely for their trade in Nigeria which was then a British colony. 
According to Ugwanyi (2002:66) other banks come into existence such as British bank for West Africa (BBWA) now first bank of Nigeria Plc in 1894, and other Barclay’s banks. Dominion colonial and oversees (D.C.O) now union bank of Niger Plc. The British and French bank that was established in 1949. The entire expatriate bank dominated the banking arena and was discriminatory against the indigenous customer service the expatriate banks, such as discrimination obviously resulted in the indigenes clamour for the establishment of indigenous banks.
According to Adeleanye (1983: 79 - 80) between 1930 and 1940 the Nigeria activists spearheaded the move to establish indigenous banks that would render creditable services to the indigenes, as the expatriate of such services. Their efforts yielded divided in the 1940’s with the establishment of many banks in Nigeria.
The importance of the banking industry became more pronounced with the establishment of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) in July 1989, which was sequel to the promulgation of the CBN ordinance of 1958. As a result of various regional governments and co-operative movement established banks in order to enhance economic development of their regions in particular and country as a whole.
Accordingly, the growth of the banking industry become more vivid with the indigenization policy in the early 1970 when more banks were opened by the end of 1981, there were 27 banks with 1,213 branches in Nigeria.
The spring up and survival of the banking industry can be attributed to marketing research.
A systematic approach to the problem of management of modern business. One of the principal functions of management is to make decision. Marketing decisions are peculiarly difficult to make and their effect are felt throughout the business world.
The emphasis on the indispensable role of marketing research as a framework is principally accounted for in the growth and development of any organization. In recent years, interest in the role of marketing research to product, planning and development in banks has grown.
The American marketing Association (AMA) study showed that over 73 percent of larger companies have their own marketing research department. And to be precise each department has established in the past five years.
With the growing emphasis on supply the individual needs of particular kinds of customers, where ever they may be. It is essential that some organized research should be undertaken to identify market opportunity. The competitive conditions of trading which characterize practically every market today, both nationally and internationally, demands of flow of reliable marketing intelligence (CHISNALL 1981).
According to Tall and Hawkers (1980:1) marketing research has an adversary role in marketing management. It is used to acquire and analyze information and to make recommendation to management as to how market problems should be resolved.
According to Zikmund (1987:11) the prime managerial value of marketing research is that it reduces uncertainty by providing information that facilitate decision making about marketing strategies and tactics used to achieve an organizations strategic goals.
Developing and implementing marketing strategy involves the following:

        As a means of implementing marketing concept, marketing research helps in obtaining information that identifies the consumer’s problem and needs, bridge gap between marketing executives and the customers.
In the long history of business enterprise, management has devoted most of its attention to managing money, material, machines and men. Management has paid less attention to the fifth recourses of the form information. Many firms in Nigeria have not yet adapted to the intensified information requirement for effective and efficient method of harnessing their resources. This will also make for speedy economic development of the country.
Marketing research is the systematic, gathering; recording and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The term is commonly interchanged with market research however; expert practitioner may wish to draw a distinction in that market research is concerned specifically with markets, while marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes.
Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either by target market.

Or, alternatively, by methodological approach

Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the preferences, attitudes and behaviors’ of consumers in a market-based economy and it aims to understand the effect and comparative success of marketing campaigns. The field of consumers marketing research as a statistical science was pioneered by Arthur Nielsen with the founding of the AC Nielsen Company in 1923.

THE GOALS OF MARKETING RESEARCH
The goal of marketing research is to identify and asses how changing element of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior.