EFFECT OF MARKETING COMMUNICATION ON THE MARKETING OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS SERVICE IN NIGERIA . A STUDY OF FIDELITY FINANCE COMPANY LTD AKWA IBOM, UYO

CHAPTER ONE/INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Marketing facilitates an exchange process and the development of relationship by carefully examining the needs and want of consumers, developing a product or service that satisfies the needs, offering it at a certain price, making it available through diverse channels or channel of distribution and developing a programme of promoting it to create awareness and interest.
Every organisation expects to achieve financial growth, both in the short and long runs, in the face of market competition. According to Kotler & Armstrong (2010), marketing is essential because a sustainable financial performance is not possible without a firm’s adoption of suitable marketing practices. Meanwhile, a sustainable financial performance is the primary target of the management of every business. Meanwhile, a business’s service quality, custo mer satisfaction and customer loyalty is dependent on its marketing communication practice (Frimpong, 2014; Manisha, 2012; Rawal, 2013).
 
Marketing communication is generally considered an efficient business model for achieving desired financial growth through service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is because it serves as a major tool for serving and relating to customers, who are practically the most valued asset of the business. Assuming a business’s customers cannot be communicated with there is no possible means of generating sales. In view of this, Frimpong (2014: 38) argues that marketing communication plays a vital role in financial performance. Besides, other empirical, theoretical and practical evidences support this argument.
 
Based on a study conducted in a Ghanaian context, Frimpong (2014) posits that each item of the marketing communication mix is relevant to service quality achievement in a financial firm. Wellman & Molander (2008) also provide related empirical evidence in a developing country context, with support from Rawal (2013). At the level of theory, Schultz et al. (2007) and Porcu et al. (2012) conceptualise a model that points to the significant effect of each aspect of marketing communication mix on service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In most of the empirical studies (e.g. Frimpong, 2014; Wellman & Molander, 2008; Rawal, 2013), advertising is identified as one of the most dominant elements of the marketing communication mix in terms of effect on service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Yet, it is admitted by Schultz et al. (2007) that empirical studies focused on the effect of marketing communication mix on business performance in terms of service quality, customer satisfaction or customer loyalty are few.
 
A personal survey of related academic literature shows that researches on marketing communication mix and its effect on businesses have been conducted at the qualitative level, with most being merely literature reviews. Schultz et al. (2007) and Porcu et al. (2012) particularly focused on the development of models and theoretical frameworks that argue the effect of marketing communication mix on service quality and customer satisfaction and loyalty. Schultz et al. (2007) is of the view that their theoretical frameworks and conceptual models need to be tested in the context of empirical research. Currently, there is a huge gap in the literature of the subject because few empirical studies are identifiable on it.