CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
We are in a very dynamic and complex world. The business environment is becoming
sophisticated day by day and as such, decision-making is becoming more and more
challenging and risky. Business organizations are failing due to poor decisions. Investors are
losing their money and are unhappy. They are being discouraged and this is quite unhealthy
to the economy. In some other instances, organizations are springing up in great numbers;
some are successful in the marketing of their products and services, while others are still akin
to the barber’s chair syndrome where all is motion but no movement; struggling to reach
their target audience. Consumers are also faced with the challenge of choice making due to
indecisiveness, skepticism, indifference and confusion which are among the key sales killers
in business world.
However, the consumer perception challenge is the first and greatest hurdle that advertisers
must cross. Perception guides all activities of the consumer from the people he associates
with to the product he buys. In the business world, it has always been what people say about
a product or service and not what the marketer says. How a consumer perceives each of the
different brands in a category, determines which brand he chooses. So many companies
spend so much money on advertising, sales promotion, point of purchase displays and other
marketing communications only to discover that many people don’t even remember the
product or the promotion. On the other hand, whether consumers ultimately purchase the
marketer’s brand also depends on whether the promotion and marketing communication
variables facilitate purchasing.
Today, it is no longer news that we are in a season of economic anomie. All that could go
wrong have been going wrong with the global economies and having ripple effects on our
local business environment. Reports about the current economic crisis have been terrific and
scaring. More companies are recently reported to have shut down operations while some are…
