STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF MARKETING MIX IN ACHIEVING ORGANIZATION AL OBJECTIVES(A CASE STUDY OF COCA-COLA PLC AND PEPSI-COLA PLC)INTRODUCTIONBusinesses must respond to changes in order to remain competitive and maintain a continues human satisfaction.
Developing appropriate strategies which will allow business to move forward is essential for the profitability of the business and attempt to anticipate the likely trends.
A successful business must totally relies upon the marketing research that help tin the identification of segments, sizes, needs, wants, targets market and then by using the right marketing mix and marketing teams to make decision that will result in customer’s satisfaction.
Marketing is an important aspect business and economic activities of any nation. It is therefore defined by Kotler(1993) as a set of objectives, activities, instruction and processes of creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging of offering that have value for customers, client ,partners and society at large.
The manufacturing sector is characterized by competitive in such a way that only the one that has competitive advantage can survive. Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola Plc are competitive companies in the manufacturing sector, the success of both relies heavily on the strategic manipulative power of their marketing mix variables and not only creative,
communicating and delivering to the superior customers value most but also as tools for achieving organization objective.OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDYTo determine the level of customer satisfaction (that is derivable) from the strategic management of marketing mix variables in Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola Plc.
To determine the significance of marketing research in achieving organizational objective.To examine how strategic management can be used in marketing mix in order to achieve organizational objectives.STRATEGY.A strategy is a long term plan to achieve certain objective.
It must be connected with vision, purpose and likely future trends as established by Kenneth Andrews(1978). A marketing strategy is therefore a marketing plan design to achieve marketing objectives.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT It is interesting to note that organization which practice strategic management has a high probability of success than those which do not. Strategic management is all about identification and description of the strategies that manager can apply to achieve better performance and competitive advantage for their organization.
MARKETING ROLES Marketing entails understanding the needs of target market and the provision of goods and services in satisfying the needs at a profit. The roles of marketing in society means its responsibilities such as ;Promoting employment generation or opportunity.
Matching supply and demandIncreasing standard of livingAiding increase in economic development Making the production of goods and services easier etc.RESEARCH METHODOLOGYThe research methodology as been carried out by using simple frequency and relative frequency inwhich questionnaire has constituted an instrument for collecting primary sources of data.
The questionnaire is a research instrument comprising carefully design questions for the respondents to answer. The questionnaire was design to examine the impact of strategic management of marketing mix in two well-known Nigeria business organizations i.e Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola plc. In order to ensure quick responses and avoid losses copies of the questionnaire administered personally by the researcher to the respondents.
Two hundred and twenty (220) questionnaires administered while two hundred (200) were retrieved representing 90% success rate.ANALYSIS OF THE DATA ANDS PRESENTATIONTable 1; Demographic (personal) data of respondentsDistribution of respondents’ base on business organizationDISCUSSION As shown in table 1, 120 or 60% of the respondents were males while 80 or 40% were female. Of the total respondents 70 or 35% were married while two-third or 130 were single. However, the distribution of respondents by the two business organization revealed that 100each were customers to Coca-cola and Pepsi-cola respectively.
Table 2; Distribution of occupational and educational qualifications of respondents.Table 2; Above showed that 50% of the respondents were civil servant, 25% were unemployed while 10% each were business person and students respectively while 5% were farmers.In terms of academic qualification, the table also revealed that 25% of respondents were WAEC holders, 15% were NCE holders, 45% were Degree holders, 10% were M.Sc holders and 5% were P.hd holders.SUMMARY OF FINDINGSThe effective realization of the objectives of business organizations does not only rest on the formulation of the components of marketing mix in meeting the needs of targeted markets but also on the application of strategic management principles. It is an established maxim that one of the key purposes for setting up business organizations is profit maximization.
However, this can only be achieved by if the organization effectively applies strategic management to the marketing mix elements. In essence, some organizations are not meeting their targeted profit because they fail to strategies their marketing mix.This study surveyed two selected business organizations Nigeria viz;Coca-cola Nigeria PlcPepsi-cola Nigeria PlcWhich are located in Ilorin, kwara State. The study examines the strategic management of marketing mix in achieving Organizational objectives in the companies. A critical view or the findings showed that strategic marketing do aid decision making.Table 3; How would you agree to the concession that marketing strategy applied by the business organizations tend to mislead consumers? As shown in table 3, in ranked order, 70 or 35% of the respondents agree that marketing strategies mislead consumers, 60 or 30% strongly agree, 50 or 25% disagree to the concession while 20 or 10% do not decide. Over-all, 130 or 65% of the respondents agree that they are misled by the marketing strategies employed by the companies.
Table 4; Can business organizations do without strategic management?The table above showed that 30 or 15% of the respondents be believed that business organization can do without strategy management while 170 or 85% believed that strategy management is a vital tools for boosting sales for business organizations.Table 5; Marketing is a mandate for any business organization that want to be successful.Table 5 above shows that 180 or 90% respondents said marketing as a mandate for any business organization that wants to be successful while 20 or 10% said No.Table 6; Coca-cola financial profile for 2009-2013. All values are in US Dollars (Million)The above table shows the financial trends of Coca-cola company for the past five years. (Source: internet). Table 7; Pepsi-cola financial profile for 2009-2013. All values are in US Dollars (Million).The above table shows the financial trends of pepsi-cola company for the past five years. (Source: internet). Based on the findings of this study it was discovered that strategy marketing do help in the achievement of organizational goals and objectives, and that, there is a significant relationship between strategic management and marketing mix variables. It could be that strategy planning are to enable the industry to exploit external business opportunities and leveraging on competitiveness as well as to ensure its viability in the need to take cross functional decision on the marketing mix in order to achieve the stated objectives. It’s also reveals the significant relationship strategized marketing mix and factors to be considered in taking strategy decision in each marketing mix.CONCLUSIONThe need for strategic management in an organization can be seen as a “SINE QUA NON” for any business organization that wants to be successful .It means that, the absences of strategic management implies there are no set of people to form rules to guide the search for new opportunities. The film will in return lack internal ability to anticipate changes and the projection of growth and development will be at low rate. The result of this research proved beyond unreasonable doubt that there are significant relationships between strategy management of marketing mix variables and organizational objectives.
ABSTRACTThe objectives of the study was to establish that companies or business organizations cannot survive or function properly without well coordinated strategic management activities to guide and control their day to day transaction. Strategic management and marketing mix variables serve as the basic input needed to ensure the proper functionality of the two organizations and to keep the business running on a continues bases. Data was obtained through the use of questionnaire involving two hundred (200) respondents with a 100% return rate.The questionnaire result revealed that higher percentage of the respondent’s belief that business organization cannot do without strategic management.
In concord with this view, some respondents said it is not an overstatement to say “marketing is a mandate for any business organization that wants to be successful”. Overview of all this shows that marketing strategies applied by business organizations tends to misleads consumers.REFERENCES Azhar, kazmi(2006), Business policy and strategic management . 2nd ed. New Delhi; Tata MCGraw-Hill publishing comp.Bamigboye, I.O (2001). Marketing managemen
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Kenneth, Andrews (1973). The concept of corporate strategy Homewood, Ill; Jonesrwin. KotlerP and keller K (2006). Marketing management , 12thed. India; peearson pearson edition Inc.
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