MARKETERS INFORMATION NEEDS AND DISSEMINATION IN TWO BOTTLING COMPANIES IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The study examined the Marketers’ information needs and dissemination in Nigerian Bottling Company and Seven-up Bottling Company in Nigeria. The study aimed at identifying the information needs of marketers, channels of information dissemination available to marketers, the influence of demographic variables of age, gender and educational background on the satisfaction of marketer’s information needs, the extent of utilization of information dissemination channels, attitudes of marketers towards information dissemination patterns, problems associated with marketer’s information dissemination, and strategies for enhancing information dissemination among marketers in the two Bottling Companies in Nigeria. To achieve the aim, the study was guided by seven research questions and seven hypotheses. The researcher used questionnaire. The population of the study comprised marketers of Nigerian Bottling Company and Seven-Up Bottling Company. The total population of the study comprises 2987 marketer that is 2,077 NBC marketers and 910 Seven-Up marketers. A sample of 600 marketers was used for the study. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and non-parametric techniques (chi-square) to test the hypotheses generated for the study at 5% level of significance. The results of the study indicated that majority of the marketers are male gender (about 66.9%) who had Senior Secondary. School Certificate (32.2%)), but have above 5-10 years of marketing experience in the Bottling Companies business. The study also revealed that there is significant difference in the information needs, channels of information dissemination, satisfaction of information needs, the prevailing marketers’ attitudes towards information dissemination patterns, the problems associated with marketers’ information dissemination and the strategies for enhancing information dissemination among marketers in NBC and Seven Up Bottling Companies in Nigeria. However, there was no significant difference in the influence of demographic variables such as age, and sex on the satisfaction of marketer’s information needs in the two Bottling Companies in Nigeria. Nevertheless, educational background had a relatively significant impact. Furthermore, the study revealed that the utilisation of information dissemination channels is not statistically independent of marketers’ marketing functions in the two Bottling Companies in Nigeria. The study concluded that marketers need a wide range of information and the problem of marketers’ information needs and dissemination can be solved through sensitization and proper training of marketers on information utilisation, record keeping, business developments, marketing strategies, and other skillsto enhance the performance of their marketing functions in Nigeria. The study concluded amongst others that marketer’s information needs and dissemination constraints included not only information on companies sale promotions, rebates, business development, production, etcetera. Buy that most marketers of NBC and Seven-Up bottling company do not keep records or utilized information on their own, while limited information are made available to them for their use by the bottling companies in Nigeria. The study recommended amongst others that NBC and Seven-Up bottling company should update marketers with relevant information as a major responsibility of their customer services because the marketers need the information to operate their business.