THE APPLICATION OF MARKETING CONCEPT IN THE NIGERIA PUBLIC SECTOR COMPANY
                           (A CASE STUDY OF FIRSTBANK)            
ABSTRACT
Marketing activities play a vital role in the survival and growth of any organization. In recent time, marketing activities in the service Company have been posing serious problems to the service operators. This is because of the competitive nature and the increase in the number of services industries. The objective of this paper is to examine the application of marketing concept in the banking Company, the study is based on information gathered and collected from both primary and secondary sources. Finding of the study revealed that applying a dominant role in the banking Company. This study also revealed the important and the benefit of applying the application of marketing concept in the Nigeria banking industries. Therefore, the continued existence of any service Company will depend on its ability to design and map out appropriate marketing strategy.  Date analysis for the study was done simply and chi-square (X2) statistic was employed to test further the result of the analysis to confirm that the impact of application of marketing concept in the Nigeria banking Company.
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
 The Banking Company now being the survival of the fittest has posed a lot of competitive problems on the survivors bank, both the old and new generation bank which have forced the marketing concept and its application in order to fight competition favourably and make more profit.
Marketing concept, the satisfying need and want of the target is better than the competitors at a profit, need not to be over emphasized. Marketing can also be in action or business of promoting and selling product or services. Though it was rarely practice in the past by services Company. The laggard posture of services marketers in applying this marketing philosophy could also be trace to inseparability nature of services.
 Apparently, owing to the very nature of banking service, it ought not to be treated in exactly the same way as other manufacturing firs,
Banking marketing must essentially perform two different functions.
it must attract deposit on one hand
it must attract borrowers and users of services on the other hand.
The dualistic of banking business entails marking problem that is more complicated than those confronting after business concern.
However, in recent times, there have been  driven from the market due to their inability to meet up with the N25 billion capital base.
The banking Company now being the survival of the fittest has posed a lot of competitive problems on the survivors bank, both the old and new generation bank which have forced the marketing concept and its application in order to fight competition favourably and make more profit.
 1.1    HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CASE STUDY
FirstInternational Bank Limited was established on 30 May 1990 and headquarters in Lagos Nigeria as a private Limited Liability Company, the Bank was Licensed to carry on the business of banking in June 1990. the bank name was changed to Firstbank Plc on 20 May 2004 to reflect its status as a public Limited Liability Company the bank’s shares was listed on the Nigeria stock exchange (NSE) on 21 October 2004 following a highly successful initial public offering (IPO) Nigeria institution and individuals numbering over a million currently own the shares of the bank. The bank’s main services delivery channels in Nigeria are its business offices which as at 2011 had risen to about 330 branches and over 218 cash offices. These are located in prime business and commercial centre in all states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FTC) Abuja. Within the first decade of operations, the bank made its mark in profitability and all other performance indices, and has maintained this prime position till date.
  STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS
Since marketing concept and its application is still new in our business organization, researchers has noticed that some organizations are behind, because of the following problems.
Not accepting the consumer as the king.
Producing the product or service they could for customers to choose.
Not adopting to the changing marketing environments
Wrong application of marketing concept
Not considering the positive impact created by the application of marketing concept.
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
This project is designed to tackle the following reach questions as it relates to the FirstBank of Nigeria Plc.
to what extent had marketing concept created impact on banking Company?
Would bank exist without applying marketing concept
Could anything be done to improvecustomer’s services
 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
The following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study the hypothesis is to be tested at 0.5 alpha levels.
Hypothesis 1:
Ho:   Marketing concept does not serve as a tool for position impact in the banking Company.
Hi:    Marketing concept serve as a tool for position impact in banking Company.
Hypothesis 2:
Ho:   The existence of FirstBank is not dependent on the application of marketing concept.
Hi:    existence of FirstBank is highly dependent on the application of marketing concept.
  PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to generally appraise the marketing department of Firstbank to identify the impact of marketing concept and its application in their baking operation. But specifically they include:
To examine the impact created by marketing concept and its application in the banking Company.
To find out whether lack of application of marketing concept can really contribute to business failure.
To examine that the application is being carried out by firstbank Plc.
To identify the problem hampering effective application of marketing concept by FirstBank of Nigeria.
To recommend to the growth of bank services.
 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is about application of marketing in Nigeria banking Company. It also helps the public, especially the depositors to know the banks that are “sound” so as to avoid risking their earned money to bank that are under distress, and the investors in the Company will also know where to direct their investment.
It is also a study to find out whether lack of application of marketing concept can really contribute to business failure.
 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study is for a reasonably extent limited to the impact of application of marketing concept in Nigeria banking Company.
By right, it was supposed to carrier all Nigeria banks, but due to some constraints are limited branches of Firstbank Plc.
 1.8   DEFINITION OF TERMS  
Age of Bank:  Ag is defined as the number of years of existence of a bank branch.
Bank:         According to Hart (1931:1) bank or banker is defined as a person or corporation carrying on the business of receiving money and collecting of draft for customers subject to the obligation of honoring cheques drawn upon them from time to time by the customers to the extent of the amount available on their current accounts.
Banking:  This can be defined as a process of accepting money or deposits from the public and grating of loans.
Marketing Concept:   According to Kotler  (1983) it is the management concept that holds the key task of an organization, is to determine the need, want and adopt the organization to delivering the desired satisfaction more effectively and efficiently than its competitors need a human need is a state of fact depreciation in a person.
 They include basic physical need for knowledge and self expression (Kotler 1980) maintains that went are desired for specific satisfaction of the needs as those separately identifiable, essentially intangible actives that produce want  satisfaction and that are not necessary tied to the sale of produce or another services.
Product Can be defines as anything that can be offered to a market or for attention, acquisition, user or consumption, and which might satisfy a want or need according to Kotler Philip 91999: 238).
Market:  Can be defined as any arrangement where buyers and sellers meet together to exchange goods and services.
Market Segmentation:  Can be defined as a marketing strategy that involves dividing abroad target market into subsets of consumers who have needs and application for the relevant goods and services.
Services:   refer to intangible offers in the market place.
Marketing Mix:   Refers to a term used to describe the combination of tactics use by a business to achieve its objectives of marketing its products or services effectively to a particular target customer group.
Marketing Research:  Can be defined as any organized effort together information about market or customers.
Customer:  Can be defined as a person or group of people that are the final users of products and services generated within a social system.
Advertising;  Can be defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identifiable sponsor to create awareness, inform, educate and persuade their target audience to make a purchase.
Brand:  Can  be defined according to Kotler Philip 92002: 4-04) as a name, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or services of one sellers or group of seller and to different late them from those of competitors.
Trade Market:  Can be defined as a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to identify for consumers that the product or services on or with which the trademark appears originate from unique sources designated for a specific market and to distinguish its product or services from those of others entities.
Corporate Identity: Can be defined as an extension of your bank which includes everything with your logo or contact information.