Abstract:
The study was conducted to investigate the extent of utilization of marketing mix by palm oil investors in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. Four research questions were developed and answered by the study while four null hypotheses were formulated and tested at p ≤ 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Bayelsa State. The population for the study consisted of 1078 palm oil investors comprising 406 staff of Bayelsa palm company, Elebele and 672 registered palm oil processors and marketers in the State. Multi-stage and random sampling technique was used to select 310 respondents; comprising 147 staff of Bayelsa palm oil company, Elebele and 163 registered private palm oil investors across the State. A structured Extent of Marketing Mix Utilization Questionnaire (EMMUQ) was used to obtain data from the respondents for the study. The questionnaire was validated by three experts; one from the Department of Vocational Teacher Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, one from Business Education section of the Department of Vocational/Industrial Education, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State while the other one was from Bayelsa palm limited, Elebele, Bayelsa State. The reliability of the instrument was achieved using Cronbach Alpha method in which reliability coefficients of 0.87 was obtained for product; 0.94 for price; 0.91 for place, 0.89 was obtained for promotion while the overall reliability coefficient of 0.90 was obtained for the instrument. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher with the help of three research assistants across the state. Mean and standard deviation were used in answering the research questions while t-test statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for testing the hypotheses (Ho) at p ≤ 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data analyzed, the findings of the study revealed that palm oil investors in Bayelsa State were not adequately utilizing marketing mix in their palm oil investment in the State. The study also found out that there is significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of staff of Government Palm Oil Company and private palm oil investors on the extent to which product (branding and packaging) are being utilized by palm oil investors in Bayelsa State. The findings on the hypotheses tested further showed that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of the groups of respondents on the extent to which price, place and promotional activities are being utilized by palm oil investors in Bayelsa State. Based on these findings, the study recommended among others that palm oil processors and marketers should introduce better ways of handling the product from processing to the point of sales of palm oil to consumers in the market and that adequate information services should be introduced for effective distribution of the product.
