ABSTRACT
This study was carried out by the researcher
to examine and ascertain the role product advertising plays on sales volume of
companies.
The study examines the twin problems of
inconsistency and inflexibility in the advertising policy of companies.
The researcher used the survey research
design to execute this study.
The population used by the research or for
this study consisted of all the workers of the Nigerian Breweries Plc. At 9th
mile corner, Ngwo in Enugu State.
The researcher used the systematic simple
random sample techniques to select the sample used for the study.
The researcher used the Yaro Yainene’s
formular for sample size determination to determine the sample size for the
study
The researcher used the measurement tool (the
questionnaire) as the major data collection instrument for this study.
Out of the 119 questionnaires administered by
the researcher, 112 were returned and percentages to present and water
interpret the data they generated for this study while they used the test for
questionnaire content.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE
APPROVAL PAGE
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
SCOPE OF T HE STUDY
LIMITATION OF STUDY
DEFINITION OF TERMS
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER THREE
DESIGN OF THE STUDY
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
SAMPLE SIZE
SAMPLING PROCEDURE
SELECTION AND CONSTRUCTION OF RESEARCH
INSTRUMENT
ADMINISTRATION OF RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF
DATA
TEST OF HYPOTHESES
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
QUESTIONNIARES
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Advertising is one of the four promotional
tools companies use to direct persuasive communications to consumers or buyers
and the general public. Advertising
policy constitutes such an important strategy in the marketing programme of
companies that its negligence could spell down for companies.
Generally speaking, companies exist to
produce and market products. This
objectives cannot be actualized if the manufactured products are not brought to
the knowledge of the consuming public.
If the consumers and the general public are not informed and educated on
the needs and wants, some products could satisfy; they will definitely stay clear
of the products.
Against this background, product advertising
focuses on projecting the image and marketability of products in such manner
that will make them acceptable to the customers and buyers. Odunsi (1998:19) noted the important of
product advertising when he stressed that growth being recorded in the
advertising field is connected with its potentiality to enhance the
acceptability and marketability of companies’ products. Product advertising has
helped so many companies to revive and reposition some of their products which
have almost reached the decline stage in their life cycle.
Furthermore, the continuous existence,
survival and growth of companies to some extent depend on the performance of
their products and the level of their sales volume. The fact still remains that for a company to
declare profit and possibly grow, its sales volume must be high. For its sales volume to be high, its product
must be acceptable to the consumers hence giving rise to their high demand.
These can only be achieved when these
products are made known to the buyers through advertising.
Product advertising as stressed by Udeagha
(1995:219) is an effective promotional tools that will not only inform and
educate buyer or consumers about a company’s products, but highly significant
in achieving the targeted sales volume of the company.
The Nigerian Breweries Plc. Is one of the
leading breweries for over 50 years of existence, operating in Nigeria today.
The company has a wide range of products that
include alcohol, malt and soft drinks.
The notable products in the companies product mix include, Gulder, Star,
Amstel malt, Maltina and Schweppes.
The company has a large factory at Agbana,
Lagos and a brewering plant at 9th Mile Corner, Ngwo in Enugu.
The company has already started constructing
what seems to be the largest factory and brewery in Africa between Eke and Ngwo
in Enugu State.
The Nigeria Breweries Plc. Has depot inmost
state capital of the federation to facilitate the distribution of its products.
The products of the company are seen and
known in every mook and cranny of the southern part of this country, as well as
in some northern states.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The objective of every company is to achieve
its sales volume target, because, if achieved, other performance indicators
like growth and totally committed to Niger curse e.g. Entertainment.
As a company that has been in the business of
leisure, pleasure and fun for over 50years; Nigeria Breweries Plc has been a
major force in the entertainment industry through a vigorous music sponsorships
programmes.
The underlying philosophy is to bring world
classes entertainment to Nigeria to support the role of out brands. International stars like Naught Nature,
Usher; shaggy and Awilo have thrilled Nigerians live in recent time courtesy
Nigerian.
Breweries star mega join and legend fun
Rampage Nigeria breweries is also involve in discovering and promotional local
and budding artistes through the star Quest and star Trek (star sponsored music
programmes). This is to give Nigeria
entertainers presence in the international science, Nigerian brewery totally
committed to Nigeria curse
– Tax/social responsibility
– Foreign investors: over 50 million Euros
(N706) was invested in Nigeria by Heineken
– Employment generation
– Environment
– To support educational in Nigeria: help in
funding of educational and research facilities in institution of high learning
e.g. Edu, TCR Fund
–
Health: they are the major facilitators in the building of sickle cell
active by the sickle cell foundation.
Again they also support various health institutions through the donation
of Blood Bank equipment, child incubators, Boreholes.
– Sports: They sponsor sports like football,
chess cycling, athletics, Golf, Table tennis, Law tennis.
Increase in profitability index would be
assured. This could be possible or
achieved if the company’s product are acceptable to the target market.
Product advertising therefore plays the
invaluable role of informing and educating buyer or consumers about some
products, what the products do and how they can satisfy their needs and wants.
In addition, product adverting enhances the
response of potential buyers to an organization and its offerings. This it does by providing information,
channelizing desires and by supplying reasons for preferring the product being
projected.
In spite of the invaluable role of product
advertising in achieving the sales volume target of companies, it still
grapples with some problems that need to be addressed.
It is sad to observe that most companies
operating in Nigeria are still inflexible and reluctant to be doing or
courageous in their advertising policy.
They are so scared of contracting advertising agency acting advertising
agency to handle their adverts that at the end of the day they fail to achieve
their sales volume target. Now with the
commissioning of its new ultra-modern brewery in Ama Enugu State, unique for
its size design and they are still set to impact eve3n more positively in the lives
of Nigerian. Besides, most companies are
inconsistent with their advertising policy.
They contract more than one advertising
agency at any given point in time. This
makes it difficult to spend same reasonable money on advertising. This is now becoming a common feature in the
brewery industry. For instance, one
hardly hears of advert concerning old beautiful product like maltex and vita
malt. This should be affecting their sales volume target.
Finally, the product advertising policy of
some companies are not so effective as to enable it have some impact on their
sales volume. Some companies do choose
some wrong and ineffective media to execute the advertising policy, hence
achieving nothing a the end of the day.
All these afore-discussed problems deserve to
be addressed through the provision of appropriate information, because, it si
only when effective information, concerning a problem is provided, will its
solution be sought.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of this study is to
examine the major effect and the role of product advertising on sales
volume. Other operational objective of
the study include the following:
i. To identify the common form of advertising
being used in the brewery industry;
ii. To
identify the common media of advertising used in the advertising industry
iii. To identify how committed breweries are
towards advertising their products;
iv. To examine the impact of product
advertising on the buying attitude of buyers
v. To examine the effect of product
advertising on the growth and profitability of brewing companies;
vi. To examine the relevant of product
advertising in product survival and performance
vii.
To identify some problems militating against the effective
implementation of product advertising in brewing companies; and
viii.
To make some recommendations based on the findings of the study.
RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The following hypothesis formulated by the
researcher will be tested in this study.
i. Ho: product advertising has no significant rote
to play in sales volume determination;
Hi: product advertising has a significant
role to play in sales volume determination.
ii. Ho:
Effective product advertising cannot lead to significant increase in
profitability level of a company
Hi:
Effective product advertising can lead to significant increase in
profitability level of a company.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
As earlier pointed out in this study, product
advertising is one of the vital tools used by companies to promote the sale of
their products. Its importance in creating immediate impact on the buying
attitude of the consumers, as well as in generating demand cannot be
over-emphasized.
Again this background, therefore, this study
will be of some immense significance to companies, especially breweries,
advertising agents, consumers and academicians.
The information contained in this study will
disclose some important functions of advertising to companies. It will further unveil some unique qualities
of advertising, its types and its objective to companies. These vital issues on advertising will help
companies design or articulate an effective product advertising policy which
can achieve their target sales volume.
To companies with chequered advertising
policy the information contained this study will help them restructure and
reformulate it with a view to achieving their objective of increasing demand
for their products, actualizing their sales volume target. More so, brewing companies will appreciate
the information content of this study, because it will help them to choose
appropriate forms of advertising and media to use in implementation their
advertising policy.
Further, advertising agents will equally
benefit from the information contained in this study, if not for any other
thing, it will help them to fashion out more effective ways or means of
liaising with companies in order to formulate and implement effective product
advertising policy of them.
In addition, consumers will find information
contained in this study good enough to enable them gain some insight in the
concept of product advertising, since they are the main focus of companies
advertising policy. Besides, they will realize the need to always listen and or
pay attention to adverts in the media because these may reshape and redefine
their buying attitude and decision.
Finally, other researchers and academicians
will derive some benefits from the information content of this study. This will help them carry out further
research on the subject of this study.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This focuses on the role of product
advertising in sales volume of breweries.
It is carried in using the Nigerian Breweries Plc as its case brewing
company. In other words, the study
focuses on the advertising policy of the company as it affects it sales volume.
Other issues discussed in the study include
the types of advertisement and media used by the Nigerian Breweries Plc in
carrying out its product advertising policy, the level of commitment of the
company towards advertising its products, the impact of the company’s
advertising policy on its growth and profitability, and the problems militating
against the company’s efforts to implement its advertising policy. The study equally discloses the
recommendations made by the researcher.
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Generally speaking, researchers do encounter
some constraints in the course of carrying out academic work(s) or studies. In view of this obvious fact, it is not an a
duration to note that he researcher encountered some constraint during the
execution of this study. The major
constraints encountered by the researcher is the course of this study include
the following:
i. The
unfriendly attitude of the staff of the Nigerian Breweries Ltd.
ii.
Limited finance or fund
iii. Mental and physical stress.
The researcher encountered some difficulties
in extracting some
vital information from the respondents used
for this study, who were mainly staff of the Nigerian Breweries Plc.
These respondents were initially hostile to
the researcher, hence