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IMPACT OF SALES PERSON IN MOTIVATING CONSUMER BRAND PREFERENCE FOR BEER PRODUCT

ABSTRACT

Since the commissioning of the first breweries in Nigeria in the year 1949 growth recorded by the brewery industry have been so unprecedented that as at 1988, a total of 54 breweries have been either operational or licensed to do so in the country. Many more have since failed in their application to the federal ministry of commerce for license, why the licensed and operational ones are expanding their production capacity and introducing more brands of products into their product line. Due to this astronomical growth in the industry competition for customer and consumers patronage and loyalty is very keen among the beer markers in fighting for this competitive position. These firms in beer industry employ a number of marketing strategies and promotional activities, with sales force as core force used to accomplish this. Consequently , millions of naira sunk into beer product sales and personal selling annually by the various breweries in the country in their bid to win and sustain consumers patronage of their brands of beer products, often to the neglect of key components or factors that motivate consumers brand preference and other component of marketing mix. The Salas forces being in the forefront are very vital source, used to positively affect favorably the choice behaviours of most consumers under competitive market situation. However a look at the sales force activities and performance in Nigeria today at they relates to move consumers products especially beer brands brings into question the effectiveness and efficiency of the sale force in motivating consumers brands preference. The questions that readily call to mind in this research includes:- (i) Are million of naira sunk annually into beer sells justified or can the sale force achieve similar results at lower or reduced cost without affecting profitability by improving other product attributes. (ii) Are their other factors than just sales motivations that are behind consumers brand choice process? To these and other related questions, forms the central task of this study.  In going about the task of this research project, the researcher has chosen the formant of five chapters, the introductory section deals with statement of the problem, objectives, working hypothesis significance of the study and scope of the study, the second chapter dwells on review of literature. Research methodology and designs are discuses of in chapter three while chapter four contains Analysis of data. Finally the last chapter five indicates the summary of findings recommendation and concluding the statements. It is envisaged that the outcome to this work will be of great interest, not only to management of the various breweries upon whose products this study in based on or being used as case study, but also to other consumers product promoters and sales force as well as students of Purchasing and Supply and all such other person who special interest in product promotion and sales force activities.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUTION 

The era of hard and aggressive selling is gone as most companies have realized that the capacity of organizations to survive and prospect depend on their ability to continuously market themselves in an environment of ever changing human or customer needs and wants. The sales man being in the forefront are very good sources of finding out the unfulfilled needs of the customers and conveying same to their companies. The belief that a good sale man can sell anything to anyone is erroneous.  Salesman is the ability to interpret product and service features in terms of benefits and advantages to the buyer and to persuade and motivate him to buy the right kind and quantity of product of services. Haas and Ernest (1974) stated that in order to qualify as professional salesmen applying the principles of creative salesmanship, the sales man must:-

i Determine the needs of the customer

ii Present the product features to the customer in terms of benefits.

iii Help the customer to find the solution to his or her problem.

iv Persuade or motivate the customer to take action.

The key to customer retention in customer satisfaction. It is not only to satisfy a customer but to delight the customer as a customer who is satisfied as well as delighted will buy again and also develop brand loyalty or preference. Here world of mouth is evident as satisfied customer will go around and tell others about the product. Thus, the impact of sales person in motivating customer brand preference for any product can not be over emphasized in any form of business organizations.

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Beer Breweries unlike palm wine was alien to our society. This beer production is relatively new production in Nigeria. Although beer breweries was of the earliest modern industries to be established in this country. The first Breweries plant in Nigeria was Nigeria breweries PLC. It was established in 1949. Before the Nigerian civil war, there was a few breweries but the oil boom which came immediately after the civil war bought with it some fundamental changes in the economic structure of the country. It reshaped the income pattern of most Nigeria, producing in it’s wake a sizeable proposition of people with appreciation level of disposable income. This led to massive entry of private individuals into the industry which in turn resulted in accelerated growth in the beer production.

This growth in breweries industry has injected a good deal of elements of competition into the industry. For instance, we have consolidated breweries PLc, Nigeria Breweries, Golden Guinea Breweries, Premier Breweries etc and there are currently over (Sixty) operational beer plants in Nigeria with a production capacity of over 19.2 million hectoliters of beer annually. This implies that, for a firm in an industry to survive, grow or improve its market share and gain brand loyalty, it must gear its energies towards some form of product high quality development, pricing effectively, promotional activities and wide distribution network. Beside competition, the growths of the breweries industry create other problem by:

I presenting variety of choice in the customers or consumers

Ii Economic problem 

Iii Psychological problem

Iv Social and political problems. All came into play.

Thus, the management of the Breweries Companies faces the problems of identifying which of these variable that exist greatest influence on consumer preference of one brand of beer product over the other. This has led to most Breweries marketing department insisting so heavily on efficient and effective sales force. Sales force here refers to an indispensable part of the marketing team that appreciates the need to be customer oriented. As a matter of fact, they are the people closest to the customer in the organization and therefore, the organization depends on them to continually monitor the needs of customers and responses to already existing products in the market and convey such information’s the organization so that they always have goods that will satisfy the customers in the market place. Winners in today’s competitive world are those who carefully analyzed needs, identify opportunity and create value offer to target customer group that competitive can not reach or match.

A satisfied customer will definitely develop brand loyalty and preference. This cannot be achieved except the customer is well motivated to take action by salespersons. Motivation here refers to as the energizing force that causes people to behave in a certain way. This is because; customer’s needs are the focus of the marketing concept salesman are used to arouse those needs for a product brand. A product refers to a particular unit of a given product, unique in its make up and distinct in some discernible ways from similar products of the same or other firms. In the marketing of beer products, branding plays an important role in our competitive market environment, branding also permit product identification which in turns facilities marketing action and demand stimulation. It makes for effective identification and market control.  The quest of this study, to varying degrees, involves investigating the place of salespeople or impact of salesmen in motivating consumer brand recognition, brand acceptance, brand loyalty and preference for brand of selected beer products “33 export”, Harp, Golden Guinea, and Premier etc.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 

In a typical Nigeria competitive market like the one that exists in Eastern market (Imo, Abia, Anambra, Enugu and Ebony etc), a marketing manager is often faced with the problem of how to:- I. Determine the nature of demand for his organization products in a given market segment. Ii Determining the factors responsible for the variation in demand and supply pattern.  Iii Determine the impacts of sale force if any in blending and matching demand with supply efficiency. Giving the proliferation of beer factories in Eastern State in particular and Nigeria in general various management of this factories or firms are faced with the problem of:-

(a) Not identifying suitable strategies for competing competitors within the industry. (b) Determining the strength of the contribution of various components of the promotional mix for purpose of stimulating demand of their brands of products  (c) Identifying the place of salespeople as motivating force, providing impulses and inducements that stimulate people for action. It has been estimated that the heaviest consumers of beer products are the rural and semi-urban dwellers whose life styles and geographical location hardly make for adequate exposure and contact with salesmen for various brands of beer products. Besides, the nature of limited communication and transportation facilities available to these markets segments militates against the effectiveness of sales person to win the acceptance of, and sustain the loyalty of this market. If this is so, it then brings into question the adequacy of sales persons so far employed to reach these consumers and indeed the usefulness of million of Naira that is sunk annually into recruiting and training salesmen by beer producing given in Nigeria.

The pertinent questions that come to mind now includes. i. Is a good proportion of beer consumers benefiting adequately from sales person on beer brands?  ii. How far have this salesperson been able to appeal to the emotion or subconscious mind of consumers as to motivate these consumers towards deciding in his favor. iii. Is the large sum of money invested on salespeople annually justified or can it be cut down without affecting profitability? Answer to these and some other related questions constitutes the control task of this research work. This is especially important now in the present state of Nigeria economy and in the face of the added problem of local sourcing of raw materials for beer Breweries, when it is most desirable for firms to identify areas of unnecessary waste to efforts cost without adversely affecting marketing efforts specifically, it becomes necessary to find out. i. To what extent is the consumption of various brand of beer product: “33 export”, Golden Guinea, Harp and Premier influenced by performance of salesmen as opposed to other factors? ii. The impact of sales person relative to these other factors (availability of the product, its taste, quality, competitive activity, prices etc) in influencing the consumer preference of one brand of beer over others.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Salesmen as a major part of marketing team aims among other things, interpreting product and service features in terms of benefits and advantages to the buyer and to persuade and motivate him to buy the might kind and quality of product or service . This study therefore, seeks to examine he market acceptance of various beer products in Imo State (using Awo Mamma as a central city) with a view of establishing to what extent consumers preference of one brand over others can be attributed to impacts of salesperson. Specifically, the objective of this research will be as follows:-
i. To provide information about impacts of sales force, attitude of customers and preference for the product brand in questions as well as the consumers most recent buying behaviors.

ii. To identify the sources and nature of differences in consumers preference to this consolidated Breweries, maker of “33 expect”. iii. The study will serve the added functions of assisting the various management in the evaluation of past performance of salesmen in order to improve future decision making. iv. To determine the extent to which consumption and brand preference of the various brand of beer products are influenced by sales force performance. v. To ascertain the strength of sales force relative to the other factors in motivating consumer’s choice of this beer product in question vi. To suggest ways of improving sales force motivational strategies for beer marketing to made for effectiveness and brand preference.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 

It is envisaged that the result of this research will help the various beer producing companies and producers of other related products in the following ways;  i. To be in a better position of tailoring their product so as to meet the needs of their consumers.  ii. To plan their marketing activities in such a way as to better define their target market and reorganized some of the causes of low performances their products. iii. To identify those various critical to the acceptance of their products. iv. To find need to undertake fresh cost benefit analysis of their entire sales force with a view to attaining optimum budgetary allocation to sales force.  Apart from the above, the research will also guide individual investors and organizations wishing to invest Breweries Company or open a marketing consultancy firm. The government and policy makers who are bent on developing business environment are not left out. Finally, the information 2ill be of help to individuals and organizations wishing to conduct further research in areas related to the4 impart of salespersons in motivating consumers brand preference for beer products.

1.5 RESEARCH QUESTION

Based on the problem and objectives of this study enumerated above, it is the researchers wish to put down the following question as main research question which will divide the researcher towards achieving his research objectives. It is hoped that answers to these main research question when carefully analyzed will go a long way in helping the researcher to determine the impact salesperson in motivating consumer brand preference for beer products. The research questions are as follows:-

i. How often do consumers device beer?

ii. Which brand of beer do they prefer most?

iii. What are the reasons for brand choice?

iv. What level of awareness do consumers received from sales force?

v. Does motivation from salesmen has anything to do with consumer choice of beer?

vi. Does sale force activate consumer decision making process? 

vii. Is it necessary to spend so much on sales men or otherwise?

viii. Is it necessary to cut down on amount been spend on sales person?

1.6 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

The following hypothesis will be tested by this researcher.

i. Hi: Consumer brand preference of beer product is influenced and motivated by impact of salesperson 

ii. Hi: Consumer brand preference of beer product does not influenced and motivated by impact of salesperson.

1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The researcher encounters a lot of problem in the course of writing this research. And these problems hindered the researcher from attaining the zenith of this research They include the following:-

i. COST/FINANCE: - The total accomplishment of the objectives of the study of demands much more cost and financial involvement that what the researcher had at his disposal. The scope of this study was so narrowed to enable the researcher have a sample that could be effectively studied given consideration to cost.

ii. STAFF UNWILLINGNESS: - The major problem was the unwillingness of the staff of consolidated Breweries Plc visited to give adequate co-operation. 
A lot of process have to be followed before the data you required could be released to you. More so, there was fear of releasing data by them on the ground that their competitors may get hold of these data and used them against the company.

iii. WRONG FILLING OF QUESTIONNAIRE:- Most respondent were not able to fill-in the questionnaires given to them correctly.

1.8 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study will centre on “the impact of salesperson in motivating consumer brand preference for beer products”. The study will also cover Awo-Omamma as a sales area of consolidated Breweries Plc. The company has Breweries Plant in Lagos which is the headquarters and in Awo – Omamma located at Km 24 Owerri/Onitsha road Awo-Mamma, Imo State. It has depots in Owerri, Umuahia, Abakeleke, Aba, Enugu and other cities. The subject will be categorized into two group apart from finding out any difference in there exposure to sales men. The study therefore be limited to Awo Omamma.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

SALES PERSONS/SALES MEN /SALES FORCE 
For the purpose of this research these works will be used to means the same thing and will be defined as marketing teams that serves as link between the firm and its customers, interpreting product and services features in terms of benefits an advantages to the buyer and persuading or motivating the customer to buy the rights kind and quality of product or services.

SALESMANSHIP; - This simply means the presentation of goods (F.E Okorie 2002)

MOTIVATION: - This is described as the energizing force that causes people to behave in a certain way.

CONSUMERS: - This is the end users of company products 

BRAND: - Brand refers to a particular unit of a given product, unique in its make up and district in some discernable ways from similar products of same or other firms.

BRAND PREFERENCE: - This is brand acceptability, loyalty and continuous patronage by consumers.

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