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THE IMPACT OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION ON PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Communication is a vital tool in any business organization as well as other types of organizations. It is a factor that can sustain the existence of any organization. Communication also helps in understanding the concepts and variables that come across the thinking of informed person or group. Communication can be viewed as the process by which information is exchanged and understood mutually by two or more people usually with the intent to motivate or influence behaviour.

Communication can also be seen as the flow of information from the sender to the receiver, taking a mutual understanding into consideration. Communication according to Sannie (2006], is ‘the imparting, sharing or exchange of ideas, knowledge, skills etc whether by speech, writing or signs. He also defined communication as the process of passing and receiving messages, instructions and or directives.

Sannie (2006) also viewed communication as ‘the process of transmitting and exchanging ideas, feelings and information through realization, symbol, writing and silence, to create mutual understanding between the communicator and the receiver.

Communication can be seen as a process by which one person or a group shares and imparts information to another so that both people clearly understand each other. It can also be defined as an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, feelings or emotions by two or more animated objects. Communication can also be defined as any means by which a thought is transferred or transmitted from one person to the other.

Communication is a key element of all business relationships. Across studies and contexts, inter-firm communication is found to have mainly positive effects on the relationship, as communication mediates various important relationship outcomes (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). Communication affects satisfaction (Cannon and Perreault, 1999; Mohr and Sohi, 1995), trust (Morgan and Hunt, 1994) and loyalty (Scheer et al., 2009) Communication also serves as a means of relational governance that increases affective commitment toward the business relationship (Mohr et al., 1996). It is generally thought that suppliers’ investments in longterm relationships pay off in the form of increased value for the customer, which, in turn, strengthens customers’ intentions to make future purchases from the same supplier (Hutchinsonet al., 2011). As for the objectives of customer retention (loyalty and future purchase intentions),it is crucial for the supplier to know the customer’s experience with perceived value as the ultimate relationship outcome (Sirdeshmukh et al., 2002). Future purchases are only attained if the customer is convinced about the supplier’s offering as the most valuable in the market. Despite the existing body of knowledge on interfirm communication, less is known about the role of marketing communications in business relationships

(Andersen, 2001), although communication is an essential element of a valuebased approach to relationships (Sharma et al., 2001). Marketing communications is suggested to have a mediating role in the transformation of perceived value into loyalty in its various forms, from attitudinal to behavioral elements (Gilliland and Johnston, 1997; Keller, 2009).

Having understood the fact that communication is the blood of any organization, and also an integrate part of marketing management, it is necessary for such tool (marketing communication) to be effectively guided inorder to achieve the marketing objectives .

Marketing communication can be defined as the promotional tools that favourably communicate information about the organization and its products to target market.

Marketing communication can also be defined as those promotional tools used in communicating favourably with the targeted market. Having known and understood the target market in the environment, it is therefore necessary to effectively select appropriate marketing tools that can be used in communicating with the target market inorder to achieve the marketing objectives of the organization.

Integrated marketing communication can be defined as the totality of the various communicational tools used in communicating an organization’s image and products with the target market. It is the combination of all promotional tools used in communicating effectively with the target audience.

According to Belch and Belch (2004), integrated marketing communication involves coordinating the various promotional elements and other marketing activities that relying on media advertising. It therefore provides added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines.

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In an average business organization, the major concern of shareholders and management is how to optimize returns on investment and profit. To be profitable, a company needs to achieve a desirable patronage of its goods and services by the consumers. This desirable patronage is the ability to take the company’s sales to the point where its revenue substantially outweighs expenses.

To achieve this is not easy because the company is faced with so many challenges some of which include competition, absence of adequate financing, the consumer’s income, perception and disposition, the quality of the goods and services, absence of basic facilities for doing business etc.

However, in the face of these challenges, a company depends mainly on its marketing activities to be able to scale through these hurdles and improve its profitability. This is because, marketing has the capability to build a good relationship with the consumer, understand what he wants and how he wants it, inform and educate him about the goods and services the company offers and how they can benefit him and delivers the product to him at the place, time and price he wants it.

But a marketing programme must be well packaged if it has to be effective and achieve these purposes. It is not enough for a company to sit down one place and package marketing programmes believing that they achieve these purposes. Among the many things a marketing programmes requires to be effective is communication.

It is through effective communication that the company can properly relate with the consumer, understand, educate and inform him. It is also through effective communication that the consumer will relate with, understand and believe the company. If for any reason a marketing programme is not properly communicated, the consequence will be a misunderstanding or ignorance of the marketing objectives of the company by the consumers.

To package a marketing programme without proper communication will lead to waste of resources and failure of the marketing activity. It will also give the competitors‟ advantage over the company and generally lead to poor returns and profitability.

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main the objective of this study is to examine the impact of marketing communication on product development. The outlines of the objective are:

1.     To assess the most popular marketing communication tool

2.     To assess the most effective marketing communication tool

3.     To ascertain if marketing communication helps to promote product awareness.

4.     To find out if marketing communication influences customers’ patronage’

5.     To examine the impact of marketing communication on the level of sales of a product.

6.     To ascertain if marketing communication influences customers’ preference for a product.

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The relevant research question associated with this study are:

1.     What is the most popular marketing communication tool?

2.     What is the most effective marketing communication tool?

3.     Does marketing communication helps to promote product awareness?

4.     Does marketing communication influences customers’ patronage?

5.     What is the impact of marketing communication on the level of sales of a product?

6.     Does marketing communication influences customers’ preference for a product?

1.5     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 

The study of “The Impact of marketing communication of product development” will be of significant importance to companies, their management, marketing departments, educational and research institutions.

Through this study, it can be established whether or not marketing activities carried out by companies are really useful to their product sales and whether marketing programmes need to be extensively communicated to make the right impact on consumers and the audience. This way it will be possible to know whether the money spent on marketing and marketing communications by companies are worth it.

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