CHAPTER ONE

1.0: BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

1.1: INTRODUCTION

        Marketing as a discipline has evolved from its old origin of distribution and selling to a comprehensive modern philosophy of marketing. Thus marketing today is perceived as a cornerstone of policy and practice of small, big knowledgeable organizations including non profit making organization such as government parastatals, ministries etc. and non governmental organization such as Churches, Mosques who are seeing Marketing as a new way of looking at their relationship with their publics.

        Marketing is usually identified with an economy of abundance where a nation produces for beyond the substance needs and in order to maintain competition advantages. Marketing is no longer a mere distribution and services, it has evolved into a central business function which tries to dynamically relate the organization to its markets and thus enable it to adjust and service the changing environment.

The managers today are not only tasked with determining the price of a product or services rendered but also has to set targets, organize marketing instrument and control the various marketing mixes in order to achieve set objectives.

        These customers’ requirements or needs can be tangible or intangibles i.e.  Physical products and services.

        Kotler, (2000) sees physical goods anything or product that is been offered to the customer or publics in order to meet customers needs and want which can be seen, touch, smell, taste and feel.

        He further proposed that service is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of any tangible or physical

Products. In a service organization, prices of services are not subjected to bargain or prior agreement which exposes the customers to possible exploitation by the service provider (oyebode: 2006).

        The American Marketing Associations (AMA) defines marketing as a managerial process that is responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customers requirement as a profit.

        Organization is the coming together of two or more persons or companies to contribute wealth together with a common goal in order to achieve organizational objectives ( Kabiru: 2001). Therefore, marketing is very relevant in service organizational and the marketing activities to be used or introduced in a service organization is based on the organizational positioning, organization’s policy towards competitive advantage, most especially in the banking industry.

1.2: STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

        The problems of this study shall be expressed in the following questions;

1. What is the relevance of Marketing in a service organization?
2. What types of marketing mix are mostly favored in a service organization?

• Does the channel of distribution used help in goal realization in a service firm?

1. How was the pricing policies helped in goal realization in service organization?
2. How can Marketing strategies affect the customers’ patronage and their satisfaction in a service organization?

1.3: AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

        The aim of this study is an examination of relevance of Marketing to service organization using a financial service firm as a case study.

        Therefore, the following objectives shall be pursued:

1. To find out whether the customers are satisfied with the kind of services being offered to them or not.
2. To measure the reliability of the service rendered by a giving service organization, using a particular organization as case study.

• To examine whether the service rendered are affordable or expensive.

1. To establish the correlation (if any) between the customers perceived satisfaction from the case study and other service products in the same industry.

1.4: SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

        The significance of the study relates to the usefulness of this study, the various marketing activities performed by financial service organization. This research work is of significance to the researchers, students and the service organization.

• This study is of significance to the researcher in the following ways:
• The project gives the researcher the practical experience into relevance of Marketing to service organizations.
• It serves as political fulfillment of the requirement for the award of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in Accountancy
• It also adds to the researcher’s knowledge as it helps to know more about the subject matter.
• To the student at large, it will similarly serve as secondary data for student embarking on related research or further findings.
• To the service organizations, this research would be of great use to bankers and other financial service provider in designing and implementing of carefully designed marketing activities, thereby enhancing better performance.