CHAPTER ONE

• INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

The concept of promotion of a particular product or service by a firm or organization is to create awareness of the product or service in order to promote the sales of the product. Business activities all over the world, whether those engaged in production of goods or those that render services, all have objectives to achieve that is, how their products or services get known to the consumer, this is done through promotion.

    Promotion is any communication activity whose purpose is to move forward a product or service and an idea on where to get the product or services. Promotion provides the stimulus upon which sales progress is based on. Without promotion, business remain stagnant, therefore , wealth and expansion  of any business comes from promotion, equally any expansion on introducing promotion, equally any emphasis on introducing promotion to business also parallel with sales and expansion of  the  business.

        Through promotion, an organization attempts to influence the sales of its products or services by increasing the quality, the price or a contribution of both to enhance its public image. Businessmen know that if a better product is produced, customers will take special pain to inform themselves of its want – satisfying attributes and where it can be purchased, hence the need for effective and efficient promotion.

        In any organization, the level of promotion and types of promotion incurred into the business is highly incomparable to one another. Promotion is the only way to ensure survival in a tactical market, to maintain or achieve the required objectives and development of the economy.

High volume of sales can only be achieved through the use of promotional tools like Advertisement, Sales Promotion, Public Relation and Personal Selling. Due to the fact that industrial markets are usually well defined, the industrial goods manufacturer can make very good use of direct mail advertising such as postal advertising consisting of a letter and often sales literature, directly aimed at specific prospective purchasers.

        Although the sophisticated use of the computer enables direct mail techniques to be applied to consumers markets, success rates are generally lower than in industrial marketing. This is partly because of the difficulty in consumer markets of identifying the prime target audience and partly because costs continue to escalate making direct mail, techniques non-viable for low value items.

        Nestle Food Company Limited is associated with the company which as been voted as the single largest food company in the world renowned for its top quality production. Nestle Food Nigeria Plc began simple trading operation in Nigeria in 1961 and has today grown into a leading food manufacturing and marketing company.

        It is a publicly quoted company existing since 1978 on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. 43% of its equity is owned by Nigerian shareholders while 57% in owned by Nestle S.A of Switzerland. The company’s head office and registered office is located at Ilupeju, Lagos State.

Nestle Food Company Limited is the food and beverages industry and its stated objectives is to satisfy the requirements of consumers with high quality food products, mainly before processing agricultural raw materials into product with long shelf life, adapted to the tastes and food habit of the consumer.+

        The company’s manufacturing facilities are located at Agbara Industrial Estate in Ogun State, which have been designed in line with modern manufacturing methods, ensuring efficient production of the various product being manufactured; infant and dietic products like beverages and culinary product.

A fully integrated plant producing concentrated sorghum malt extracts has been built and commissioned at its Agbara site with the assistance of its technical adviser NESTLE LIMITED at Switzerland. The company also produces hydrolyzed protein mix using local raw materials.

        Nestle food company limited aims at optimizing its long term viability and has available to its physical and skilled human resources, high quality products, high standard of integrity, efficient management and access to the technical adviser.

They promote their products through advertisement, sporting adviser, exhibition etc. Nestle Food Company Limited often sponsors secondary schools and primary schools by organizing All secondary schools Basketball competition and All primary schools football competition.

        Nestle food company promotes their product through Exhibition. They provide an excellent opportunity both for meeting prospective customers and for demonstrating product. Similarly, public relation forms a significant part of Industrial Marketing.

Many prospective customers can be convinced of a product’s performance and value to their business by reading about successful application in competitor organization.

        They also promote their product through selling. Selling industrial goods usually requires a different emphasis by the salesman. The salesman makes far fewer calls than for consumer goods, say two or three times per day as opposed to ten or more.

His sales call is predominantly one of liaison and problem solving. He spends a lot of time with each customer.

• AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The aims and objectives of the study is to identify the importance of promotion with reference to NESTLE Food Company LTD.

The objective of this study is to obtain information on how people get to know the company for patronizing with particular reference to the features of promotional activities adopted by the company. To also obtain information on which of the promotional tools to be used frequently by the company and the effectiveness and efficiency of promotion on the company.