IMPACT OF SALES PROMOTION ON THE MARKETING OF SOFT DRINKS IN ABAKALIKI URBAN .

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of the Study

In any organization whether profit or non profit oriented, the main purpose of the organization is to achieve its objectives. The objectives cannot be achieved in a vacuum; there must be a clearly set strategy that management should use in order to meet these objects.

Many businesses fail to realize that they cannot stay in business without any marketing strategies. This is because they were operating in a market that was monopolistic in nature. This means that there was no intense competition from other organization. But these days due to dynamic nature of the market, and consumer taste changes every day, it has become imperative on the part of the management to look into their strategies and review them if at all they want to remain in the business. The integrated marketing communication mix consists of the subsets of marketing tools that are primarily communicational in nature. They are tools normally classified under promotion which is one of the controllable variables of the 4ps of marketing promotional mix, they are made up of advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, publicity etc.

It helps in conveying message about the product offering to the customers, creating demand, market positioning, and to make a decision related to buy a product. Among the various promotional tools, it has been found that sales promotion is one which stimulates quick and large purchases in a limited period of time. It can be said that, sales promotion is the marketing activity that adds the value proposition related to a product (i.e., getting more for less) for a limited time in order to stimulate consumer patronage, effective sales and the effort made by the sales force.

IMPACT OF SALES PROMOTION ON THE MARKETING OF SOFT DRINKS IN ABAKALIKI URBAN .doc