CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Advertiser’s
primary mission is to reach prospective customers and influence their
awareness, attitudes and buying behaviour. They spend a lot of money to
keep individuals (markets) interested in their products. To succeed,
they need to understand what makes potential customers behave the way
they do. The advertisers goals is to get enough relevant market data to
develop accurate profiles of buyers-to-find the common group (and
symbols) for communications this involves the study of consumers
behaviour: the mental and emotional processes and the physical
activities of people who purchase and use goods and services to satisfy
particular needs and wants. Advertising is any paid form of non personal
presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an
identified sponsor (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010). There are various forms
of advertising like informative advertising, persuasive advertising,
comparison advertising, and reminder advertising. Informative
advertising is used to inform consumers about a new product, service or
future or build primary demand. It describes available products and
services, corrects false impressions and builds the image of the
company, (Kotler, 2010).Advertising can be done through print media
which includes news papers ,magazines ,brochures ,Audio media for
example Radio, and visual media which includes billboards, and
television (Kotler and Armstrong 2010).
Sales performance describes
the trend of collections in terms of revenue when comparing different
periods (MC Cathy, 1994). The sales may be in form of offering products
or services to consumers. A service is any activity or benefit that one
party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not
result in ownership of anything (Kotler and Armstrong, 2010).Sales
volume is the core interest of every organization and is based on sales
and profit .When volume goes up profits rises and management in
organizations is made easier.
1.1.1 ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
The Nigerian
Bottling Company Ltd is one of the biggest companies in the
non-alcoholic beverage industry in the country and is the sole franchise
bottler of The Coca-Cola Company in Nigeria.
The Nigerian Bottling
Company serves approximately 160 million people by producing and
distributing a unique portfolio of quality brands, bringing passion to
marketplace implementation, and demonstrating leadership in corporate
social responsibility.
NBC Ltd started operations in Nigeria in
1951. Based in the city of Lagos, it operates 13 bottling plants across
the country. In addition, we channel products through 59 warehouses and
distribution centres. The company employ about 4,800 people and
indirectly support the jobs of up to more than a million more in our
value chain.
Nigerian Bottling Company aims to be customers’ most
preferred supplier, and conduct programmes to support more than 450,000
customers who sell their products to consumers.
The company is part
of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Group , one of the largest bottlers of The
Coca-Cola Company’s products in the world, and the biggest in Europe.
Coca-Cola Hellenic operations span 28 countries , serving more than 570
million people. The company is headquartered in Athens and listed on the
Athens, New York, and London stock exchanges.
- Products
- NBC produce, sell and distribute a wide range of beverages, most of
which are trademark products of The Coca-Cola Company. Our product
portfolio consists of:
- leading brands Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola light, Fanta and Sprite
- local brands such as Schweppes, Five Alive, Limca and Eva
The Nigerian Bottling Company continuously review opportunities to
expand its product portfolio in order to offer consumers in Nigeria an
increasing range of choices. Every measure is taken to ensure that its
products are of the highest quality.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The Nigerian
Bottling Company carries out frequent advertising of their products to
increase their sales volume, through taking part in charitable funds in
Nigeria and even sponsoring sports .It advertises using radio,
television and newspapers.
Despite its efforts in advertising
regularly the sales of Nigerian Bottling Company industry have not
improved to the desired targets. The sales in Nigerian Bottling Company
for the past four years have not been steady.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of the study was to establish the impacts of advertising on sales volume of an organization.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
- To examine the forms of advertising used by The Nigerian Bottling Company.
- To establish the level of sales performance in Nigerian Bottling Company.
- To establish the relationship between advertising and sales in Nigerian Bottling Company industry
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What are the forms of advertising used by Nigerian Bottling Company?
- What is the level of sales performance of Nigerian Bottling Company?
- What is the relationship between advertising and sales performance in Nigerian Bottling Company industry?
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Content scope
The study covered advertising as the independent variable and sales performance as the dependant variable.
Geographical scope
The
study was cantered at the Nigerian Bottling Company industry in Lagos
because it is the headquarter of the industry where marketing plan is
carried out, and it has large sales volume
Time scope
The study looked at five financial years back that is 2006 to 2010
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will help
firms understand the importance of advertising. It will also enable
them structure their adverts and brands to make them more appealing in
order to improve sales and lead to better performance. As this study
gives a clear insight into how advertisement can influence consumer
behaviour, many firms will be encouraged into using adverts to market
their products. When firms start making more sales and profits as a
result of advertising, the economy of Ghana will be boosted, as more
income from tax will be accrued to the government of Ghana. The findings
and recommendations of this study will go a long way in helping firms
to adopt good advertising strategies, and appealing brand designs to
help get more consumers for their products and services.
1.8 PLAN OF STUDY
Chapter one of this study
includes the general introduction, background information about the
study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research
questions, scope of the study, significance of the study, and the
limitation of the study.
Chapter two reviews all relevant literatures relating to the study as
well as the researcher’s views concerning previous studies on the
challenges of income taxation.
Chapter three includes the methodology applied in collecting and
analysing data, population definition, study site, and limitations.
Chapter four presents the results of the study as well as data analysed, and the interpretation of the analysed data.
Chapter five includes a summary of the study, conclusion and recommendations based on the findings from the study.
1.9 STUDY LIMITATION
The
only limitation faced by the researcher in the course of carrying out
this study was the delay in getting data from the various respondents.
Most respondents were reluctant in filling questionnaires administered
to them due to their busy schedules and nature of their work. The
researcher found it difficult to collect responses from the various
respondents, and this almost hampered the success of this study.