PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT IN THE NIGERIAN CAPITAL GOODS INDUSTRY (Published)
Authorities and specialists in marketing and product management have submitted variously on the theme of the study, Product Life Cycle (PLC). This, the researcher builds on so as to add to the body of knowledge by investigating problems such as low sales, consumer dissonance, early product withdrawal, and others, which all culminate into financial losses for organizations within the capital goods manufacturing/assemblage and sales segment of the Nigerian manufacturing industry. The study provides up to date information on the life cycle trends of capital goods, which will help in their manufacturing and stock holding decisions. Also, a construct depicting the relationship between Sales and PLC with reference to capital goods was developed. The data for this study was collected from both primary (four companies) and secondary sources. Questionnaire was adopted as a data collection instrument. The data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Amongst other recommendations, the study recommended that Management of Product Life cycle should be taken into consideration in new product design and prototyping. This is essentially due to the influence of frequent foreign innovations that constantly render recent products obsolete.
Keywords: Buying Behaviour, Capital Goods, Competition, Product Life Cycle, Sales
PERCEPTION OF BANKS’ STAFF ON COMPETITION AND MARKETING STRATEGIES IN NORTH-EASTERN NIGERIA (Published)
The study focuses on the perceptions of banks’ staff with regards to competition in the Nigerian banking industry and the marketing strategies that the banks have employed to cope with the competition. The primary data for the study were obtained using a structured questionnaire administered on a sample of 100 staff of selected banks in Jimeta-Yola, the capital city of Adamawa state, North-eastern Nigeria. The data obtained from the questionnaire were analysed using percentages, mean, and the Pearson correlation analysis. The findings revealed that the top-5 factors influencing competition are the reputation or rating of banks, overall strategy adopted by the banks, effective deployment of ICT and associated facilities, incentives that individual banks give to their marketers and regulations/reforms by the government. Personal selling, relationship marketing and new product development were also found to be the dominant strategies employed by the bank as they significantly impact on customer and deposit attraction, new product adoption as well as marketing costs.
Keywords: Bank marketing, Competition, Environment, Marketing Performance, Marketing Strategies