THE IMPACT OF RAPID INCREASE SALES PROMOTION ACTIVITIES ON THE SALES OF SOFT DRINKS IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
Sales promotion is something extra that can arouse interest create a buying desire, and spark off an immediate reaction from customers, middlemen or company’s sales force, t is the name that is applied to special kinds of sales accelerating activities that are not necessary classed as advertising, personal selling. It is considered as special selling efforts and it consist of short term incentives which are designed stimulate buying actions.
Chapter one talks of the introduction of the study background of the study, the statement of the study, the objective of the study which to find out it sales promotion has helped the Nigeria bottling company Plc to position their product to find out if sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty etc two hypothesis were formulated and also some definition of terms etc.
chapter two talks of the review of related literature for better understanding of sales promotion activities contributions, ideas and previous investigations of authors, experts and some researcher were reviewed. Some of the authurs and experts that were consulted, are kotlers will and his research teams 1984, Unampkpa 1978, will Cheese, Kennedy and Houston 1987, only but few were metion mention.
        Chapter three discuss the research methodology which includes research design, population of the study which is 100 sampling procedure, determination of sample size which the researcher have as 80 using yaro yamen formula, method of data collection which are primary and secondary data.
Chapter four handles presentation, analysis and interpretation of data in the course of this study data. The analysis presented is by the use of tables and samples percentage. The two hypothesis were relationships to show that sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottleing company Plc to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty. Second one is that there is significance relationship to shows that sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to position their product.
Chapter five summarize the findings based on the research questions analysis and the two hypothesis that were also made which include the following sales promotion has helped not only the Nigerian bottling company but others to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty and its has also helped companies to position their product. Some recommendations were also drawn which are:-
The company should not ignore sales promotion because it has helped in a brand loyalty.
Companies should not overlook sales their product above their competitors.
 CHAPTER ONE
1.0    INTRODUCTION
          Sales promotion is that something extra that arouse interest, creates a buying desire spark off an immediate reaction from customers, middlemen or company’s sales force. It is the name that is applied to special kind of sales accelerating activities that are not necessary classified as advertising, personal selling or publicity. It is considered as special selling effort and its consist of short term incentives which are designed to stimulate buying action. It is generally considered that sales promotional activities are designed to build up brand loyalty. This is because sales promotion has an element of immediacy (that is the benefits are immediate) but it does not build any long consumers franchsise in contract to advertising sales promotion devices are usually the only promotional materials available at the point of purchase and this contributes to its impact in stimulating the prospect. The prospects are often in a buying frame of mind and they will not be there at the point of sales.
1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
          The Nigeria bottling company engages themselves with sales promotion because sales promotion called attention to product improvement. It has helped the Nigerian bottling company to spread its dept and other plants all over the country. Due to sales promotion Nigerian bottling company have about 36 or more products plan all over Nigeria and some of them are Enugu, Ibadan, Oron, Kano, Onitsha, Aba, Umuahia, Aijire in Oyo state, Apapa and Ikeja plants just to mention but few.
        Also, it has been of help to the Nigerian bottling company by using sales promotion to inform buyers of a new brand and improve market share.
The Nigerian bottling company uses sales promotion as a tool to create talking point for the company’s sales force and it also helped them to position their product in a competitive environment or market because when you position or market your product, it means that your have secured your product and product reader in a competitive market or environment. Sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company in positioning their product in a competitive environment and the Nigerian bottling company uses it to accelerate the usage rate by the present user up to date.
1.2    STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM   
        Coca-cola is noted for her world work advertisement and seems to have succeeded with it, irrespective of different languages and cultural environment. But since 1987 it has been noted that Nigerian bottling company Plc the ranchise holder in Nigeria has been embarking on sales promotions, which cover a limited area at a higher cost. So consisting the enormous cost, it became necessary to evaluate this action to determine the cost effectiveness of his expensive programmes and the response. The researcher took the research because of the following reasons that are mentioned below.
        It has of doubt to the researcher if sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to position their product. It was not certain, the usage rate by present user of soft drink. Further the note of sales promotion to the Nigerian bottling company Plc in the sale of soft drink was not clarified. Also, it was of doubt to the research if sales promotion will helped the Nigerian bottling company to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty. It was not clear on the researcher, it sales promotion has created talking points for sales force. Moreover, the researcher was of doubt of sales promotion was secure additional shelf spare and added display.
1.3    OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
        The objectives of this study are: -
To find out if sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to position their product.
To find out the usage rate by present users of soft drink.
To find the role of sales promotion in selling soft drinks.
To find out if sales promotion has helped the Nigerian bottling company to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty.
To find out the acceptability of sales promotion as a marketing strategy in the sales of soft drinks.
To find out if sales promotion has created talking point for sales forces.
Also to find out if sales promotions has secured additional shelf spare and added display.
1.4    RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Has sales promotion helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to position their product?
What is the usage rate by present users of soft drink?
What are the role of sales promotion in selling soft drink?
Has sales promotion helped the Nigerian bottling company Plc to maintain customers patronage and brand loyalty?
What is the degree of acceptability of sales promotion as a making strategy in the sales of soft drink?
Has sales promotion create talking point for the sales force?
Has sales promotion secured additional shelf spare and adding display?
1.5    SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
        The sales promotion has rapidly increase in recent times that it is very important in the marketing of soft drink. The extent of company’s sales that is attributed to the effectiveness of sales promotion is not yet determined and the determination of this will enable the company to cost involved.
1.6    SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Sales promotion before the sixties were more popular but in recent years between 1969 – 1976, it has grown and much more in the late eighties. Due to the rapid increase of sales promotion prompted the researcher to research on sales of soft drinks in the country is mainly done by Nigerian bottling company Plc.
1.7    LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
          The promotion encountered in this study include the following:-
Lack of sufficient funds, inadequate contact with some of the respondents, illiteracy level and prejudice, distrust arising from ignorance of the basis for the study. Marketing research general involved cost in term of survey, questionnaires administration and collection of concluded research work, as a student of limited financial resources, those cost became more difficult to settle, therefore stretched the financial position of the researcher. Some respondent did not complete the questionnaire as they continued to postpone attention to them with high rate of illiteracy on this part of the world, some respondents did not understand what was required of them and why the researcher was carried out. Another information of this study is time in collection of the questionnaires several repeat, calls were made and some times, the respondent will not answer the question. This  state of affair could be frustrating and in some case of respondent becomes hostile and aggressive.
1.8    DEFINITION OF TERMS
Marketing Research: This is defined as the systematic gathering, recording and analyzing of data about problems relations to the marketing of goods and services.
Franchising: This is defined as a form of licensing by which two parties which are the franchisers and the franchisers are involved, the franchisers provide the standard package of the franchiser provide the capital, markets the knowledge and he is involved personally.
Packaging: This is the study of designing and producing the container of a product normally a physical product.
Questionnaires: This is defined as a set of questions used in the research studies to obtain information from the respondent who are the subject of the research.
Point of Purchase Display: This is defined as those promotional method used at the retail level and is very effective as a means of gaining consumer attention.
Persona Selling: This is defined as a face to interaction between the buyer and the seller for the purpose of making sales.
 REFERENCES
Colins J. Coulson Thooma (1984): marketing communication
– London Heineman, page 186
Eugel M. Warshaw and T. Kinnearbid page 469.