BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Current globalized marketing has prompted companies to see internationalizing their activities as a means of remaining competitive. A company's marketing strategy has evolved into a crucial instrument for surviving and thriving in a competitive market climate. Aremu and Lawal (2012) define strategy as an organization-wide pattern of resource allocation decisions. This includes both desired objectives and ideas on acceptable and, most importantly, undesirable tactics to achieve them. Strategy necessitates an understanding of the market and its surroundings, buyer behavior, competitive activities, and the requirements and skills of marketing intermediaries. Therefore, marketing strategy may be described as the means through which a company strives to reach its target markets. Marketing strategy begins with market research, building a vision for the market(s), choosing market target strategies, designing positioning strategies, establishing goals, and executing marketing programs to match the value needs of the target markets. (Mustapha 2013). It is a logic by which consumer demands, attitudes, and the goods of rivals are evaluated, and it continues through advertising, promotion, distribution, and, if relevant, customer service, packaging, sales, and distribution. Marketing strategy must emphasize offering higher value to consumers and the organization at a reduced price (Chiliya, Herbst and Roberts- Combard 2009). Owomoyela, Oyeniyi, and Ola (2013) also see marketing strategy as a method for creating a high-quality product that fits client demands, giving a reasonable price, participating in broader distribution, and supporting it with an efficient advertising strategy. Marketing strategy is essential to an industry's capacity to increase its market share and reduce the effect of competition.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the engine of economic growth and development globally, including in Nigeria. By their very nature, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the most feasible and genuine vehicle for self-sustaining economic growth (Oyebamiji, Kareem & Ayeni, 2013). Competitive and medium-sized enterprises in emerging nations, such as Nigeria, struggle to thrive in local and international environments of severe competition. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria have not performed admirably and have not thus played the anticipated critical and dynamic role in the country's economic growth and development. They highlight that the government, citizens, operators, and practitioners are very concerned about the issue. These difficulties may be the consequence of a perceived poor marketing strategy, which is negatively impacting the organization's performance, product quality, customer satisfaction, and profitability. To survive the pressure of the global market's competitive environment, small and medium-sized business (SME) operators must provide a high-quality product with appropriate packaging that satisfies the needs of their enterprises, offer an affordable price, engage in wider distribution, and employ an effective promotion strategy.
Prior to producing and manufacturing a product or service for them, Marketing Concepts emphasize the necessity to comprehend the potential clients. With the customer's desires and requirements included into the product's design and production, sales and profit targets would be easily attained. Since customer satisfaction is essential to the organization's success, the requirement to comprehend the client is crucial. Marketing research methodologies were developed specifically for this reason. Smaller companies may maintain a close connection with them by communicating with them. While bigger organizations have put in place strategies to maintain in close contact with their clients, whether via focus groups or even third-party research studies, smaller businesses have not. Regardless of the strategy, the objective is to know the consumers so that the organization can serve them better and not lose sight of their requirements and desires. According to the marketing literature, the marketing concept holds that the success of any organization rests only on identifying the requirements of the target market and satisfying those needs more efficiently and effectively than rivals (Kimerey & Rinehart, 1998).
The marketing concept may be seen as a guide for satisfying the requirements and desires of customers. The marketing concept is predicated on the premise that consumers who do not have a need or desire for the things being sold will not acquire them. Ibidunni O.S.'s (2012) marketing concept is the management approach necessary to achieve corporate objectives. According to Peter and Donnelly (2004), the concept of marketing entails that organizations should endeavor to be profitable by satisfying the requirements of consumers. Thus, according to the marketing concept and philosophy, an organization should continually seek to satisfy its consumers' desires and requirements while simultaneously achieving its own objectives. It should be highlighted that attaining organizational objectives is best accomplished by satisfying the requirements and desires of customers. At the heart of the marketing concept is the dependence of businesses on the identification and satisfaction of their consumers' requirements. The consumer will become the focal point of all firm operations, including planning, strategic problem formulation, and marketing activities.
According to the classic marketing concept, an organization should increase long-term customer satisfaction via a coordinated set of activities that also enables the organization to meet its profit objective. Organization will symbolize long-term partnerships with both internal and external stakeholders, consumers in particular. The product service system (PSS) concept is recognized as a means to aid in this system-level enhancement (Goedkoop, van Helen et al. 1999; Mont2000).
The objective of advertising a product or service must be to pique the attention of the target market, since this develops a demand for the product or service. For instance, some advertisements capture the audience's attention, but a few seconds later the product or service is forgotten. Excellent advertising will constantly keep items in the target consumer's mind. In addition, the advertising budget must be considered while establishing a marketing concept. When companies embrace the marketing concept for the first time, they always establish distinct marketing departments whose mission is to meet client requirements and wishes. Some of these divisions contain sales departments with extra duties, which is intriguing. While this sales department is still present in some organizations, many others have restructured to become marketing organizations with a customer-centric business model. Since the organization of the whole organization is to satisfy the requirements and desires of the client, other departments cannot declare that a customer issue is the marketing department's satisfaction. This requires the satisfaction of every member of the organization in addressing the requirements and desires of the consumer. In order to identify market categories, the marketing concept depends on marketing research. The marketing department takes decisions on the controllable aspects of the marketing mix in order to meet the demands of market segments.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The business climate is rapidly shifting from one in which companies dictate the sorts of goods and services produced to one in which customers select what should be manufactured. In an era when corporate rivalry is fierce and consumers are spoiled with choice, it is essential for a firm that intends to increase sales volume to understand what customers want. As observed by Onwukwe (2018), small scale businesses are unable to realize good profit margins, dispose of excess stock, recover operating costs in a timely manner, and command a reasonable market share due to their inability to generate higher sales volume; this is primarily due to the marketing concept they employ. Market concept is a perspective that highlights the need of understanding the requirements and desires of target markets in order to produce a product or service that is pleasing, more efficiently and effectively than the competition. It has been observed that customer wants are many and difficult to satisfy. This topic seeks to determine the effect of marketing concept on human needs, how marketing concept might be utilized to satisfy human needs, and how consumers perceive marketing concept's effectiveness in meeting their needs. Although there is a great deal of literature on marketing, few studies have examined how small firms might use it to affect sales growth. Based on this backdrop, the researcher began the investigation.
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